Anybody remember the 1940s?

[lyman]

Red,

my great grandfather lived in a house built in the early 1800's,
the farm is now owned by a cousin,

water came from a spring when I was a kid, and was pumped to the house,

the well or spring house was down by a creek,,
it was basically a pipe coming out of the block wall, the flowed constantly,

the spring house was partially in the side of a hill, so it stayed cool even on a very hot day,
I was told that it was also the house refrigerator, milk, butter etc was stored there vs in the house,
esp since Ice was a rich man's commodity

- - - Updated - - -

I can remember gas powered washing machines & every body cut their lawn with push reel mowers in the early 50'S.

my wife's grandmother had a barrel type washer, big ole gear shift on the side and the rollers to wring stuff out on the back,
electric powered, and she used it every week until the day she died,

someone in the area paid good money for that old washer, (you could have bought a big brand new one and have change left over)

[RED]

There is a 1948 picture of me and a cousin in Cass AR standing by a beautiful stone wall that was built by the CCC boys during the Great Depression. We lived in the Forrest Ranger?s house there and put water came from a nearby spring, there was no indoor plumbing.

Today the house is long gone but the stone wall is still there and is even more beautiful today. There are oak and pine trees 18? in diameter where the old house stood. Back then we had no milk or ice delivery and it was 26 miles to the grocery store in Ozark.

There was a gas station at Turners Bend on Hwy 23 run by Champ Turner and he had two sons my age, Gary and Lonnie. Lonnie Turner became a well known attorney and ran for Governor but was defeated.

[lyman]

This isn't about the abolition of air conditioning but about a change in refrigerants. This has happened before and will make your current air conditioner obsolete as soon as it needs a major repair. Unfortunately it will also make your new A/C, refrigerator or freezer more expensive and possibly less efficient. Anyone who thinks Joe Biden or Bill Gates or Whoopie Goldberg will live without A/C is naive, but cost matters a lot less to them than a lot of folks on this forum.

it also affects much more than your home AC,

there was a big change years ago in the industry, that was very expensive,

first was the requirement that every tech have a pump available to capture any refrigerant (not a big deal, most had one anyway) but there were some small changed needed when one type of freon (R22?) was abolished and the new stuff was installed,

I remember the techs drawing a vacuum on a system and emptying it out, then storing the old refrigerant to use in another store that had not been converted yet,

I don't recall what had to be done to do the change, other than new oil and filters as well (refrigerant has oil added)

I do remember the techs bleeding valves and not caring one bit, and also using the pressurized refrigerant to blow out drain lines,,
that stopped pretty quick with some Gov't regs and the cost jumping up significantly,

[fguffey]

Yes I remember walking through the neighborhood when a neighbor would shout; "HAY you little Jap", there pain had to be greater than anything I had to endure because they lost a son.

And then there were paper/metal drives. There has to be something wrong with my memory because I was just 6 years old when the war in the Pacific came to a close. I remember taking a can opener to the dump to cut the bottom of cans out so that is was easier to flatten. And the there was the red Flyer, to get a load of cans in that wagon required creativity. Same with paper, one of the movie operators offered free movies during metal and paper drives, the part I remember was the heat and the lining up in front of the theater. without shoes the side walk was more than a kid could handle, the theater operator would gave me his paper to stand on.

And then there was the gas mask giveaway. My two older brothers came home with canister type gas mask claiming they were free at the Army and Navy store so I took off for Scott St. I told them I was there to get my free mask, it was about that time I got the feeling the mask were not free but they decided they were not going to disappoint me so they gave me the mask. I left the store wearing the mask and dragging the cannister, it was a noisy trip home.

And then there was the BB Daisy air rifle give away. My older brothers stole a box of BB guns from there dear old dad, he reported them stolen and here comes the law with his two sons in tow. One day I got far enough away from home I needed a bus ride home. While setting on the curb a man walked up and asked me about my dog, he wanted to know if my dog bit. Being honest I said "NO, my dog does not bite". It was then for some reason the dog sitting on the curb with me bit the man. The man was mad, he started shouting about me lying about my dog not biting. I explained to him the dog that bit him was not my dog.

We did not own an automobile, one day I was standing with my mother at the tracks waiting for a train to pass when she noticed the steam locomotive appeared be be driven by her two oldest sons. People in cars waiting for the tracks to clear thought it was Hilarious, my mother , for a moment, thought they stole the train. The crew pulled a prank during tuff times.

I spent V-J day in the emergency room being sown up, I had no ideal I was supposed to be excited but the man at the grocery store convinced me I should run home and tell the family. I had gone to the store with a wood wagon to get a 5 gallon glass jug of water. In the excitement I hit a hole that caused the cart to flip, broke the glass jug and that gave me a day I will never forget.

And then I went back to the grocery store for another jug of water; and I did not pay for it and I did not pay the deposit for the broken jug.

F. Guffey

[JB White]

The older refrigerants when I was younger were ammonia based. Worked great, but I was told they were very dangerous if a system sprang a leak. In my days it was mostly R12 and R22. They put the kibosh on R12 in the 90s. Especially automotive AC systems.
I read where they banned R22 last year.
I'm not up on what others might still be available aside from 134a. Not nearly as efficient in hot weather as R12 IMO.

[fguffey]

They put the kibosh on R12 in the 90s

And now they have a replacement for both.

F. Guffey

[JB White]

And now they have a replacement for both.

F. Guffey

They're replacing the 90's too?

[lyman]

They're replacing the 90's too?

if that means no more Grunge music,,,, I would be ok with that

[fguffey]

They're replacing the 90's too?

I hope it is OK to go back to the early 40s as in replacing the early 40 and what I remember.

There were the streaks and specials, large stainless passenger trains, when not in use they parked the cars less than 3 blocks from the house out of view from the public. I can only guess passengers saw what the railroad wanted them to see but I found if a little kid knocked on the bright shiny cars while walked the length of the train someone would reach out, grab the kid and pull them inside. I did not know who they were nor did I know where they were from but they always treated me like I was a passenger. They always had cute little sandwiches and something to drink. There were two of them, they did not agree with me being there because the railroad was looking for an excuse to get rid of them; meaning being parked on a side track for long periods of time was something they had to tolerate.

It must have been close to 50 years later I was watching PBS when they presented a program that was not about the train but the poor conditions and bad treatment of employs that served the passengers of the train.

Later I found a book that quoted an army Surgeon at Yorktown, he wrote about what he saw after the battel.
He said today we are no closer to obtaining the goals set forth at the House Of Burgesses than we were on the day the words were spoken.

F. Guffey