The "Old Fashioned Thing in the Window" Story

It was an ordinary day. Our daughter Brynn, who lives in Maryland, was on the phone with my wife. All of a sudden my wife broke out in laughter. I'm sitting across from her in the family room and I said, "What's so funny." After another round of laughter she told me that Brynn's central air conditioner isn't working again and the girls, my granddaughters, were going to sleep in her bedroom tonight, since she had borrowed a window air conditioner from a neighbor and it would be the only cool place in the house to sleep. Brynn said that Courtney, one of my granddaughters, said to one of her friends that her mom put one of these old fashioned things in the bedroom window. Old fashioned? Then Brynn went on to remind my wife that she used to sleep on the floor in our bedroom on hot nights when she was growing up on Janet Ave. Actually, she slept on the floor in our bedroom until 7th grade, because her bedroom had no old fashioned thing in the window. We lived in an English Tudor style house which had three bedrooms and no central air. When our first child, Derek, was born, he slept in the "baby's room' which was an extremely small room next to our bedroom. Maybe 10' by 15' in size. We put a screen door on the room so the cats wouldn't get in the room and suck the breath out of Derek while he slept. Yep, that's what people thought back then! Including us! When Brynn was born we moved Derek to the rear bedroom, which was about twice the size, and she got the baby's room. Hey, she was a baby. Then when Tad, our third, was born he got the baby's room and Brynn shared the back room with Derek. They had a bunkbed with Derek on the top and Brynn on the bottom. The rear bedroom had an old fashioned thing in the window as did our bedroom. When Tad was maybe four years old, we moved him to the rear bedroom with Derek and I built a bed for Brynn with the sleeping quarters on the top and storage and a desk on the bottom. Pretty neat and she loved it. We placed that in the baby's room which seemed about the size of some people's closets. She never complained except on warm evenings when the fan wasn't enough to cool the room. Eventually I made a bedroom in the third floor for the boys and she got the rear bedroom back again. Now every bedroom where someone slept had an old fashioned thing in the window. Carol and I look back on those good old days and wonder how we ever accomplished what we did. Today we watch "House Hunters" on HGTV and listen to the spoiled younger generation say how they couldn't possibly live without three bedrooms and two or three bathrooms with two bowls in each, a walk-in closet the size of our baby's room and central air units on both floors. Wow, how could they have functioned during the years when Carol and I were raising our family with those old fashioned things in the window? They can't; that's why so many buy the big houses and suffer foreclosure or bankrupcy. Oh, for the good old days! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Photo shows Derek, Arnold (our dog), Brynn and Tad.