I don’t know how we survived the heat. Air conditioning was a luxury for most of us in the SCV when I was growing up.

Oh, there were a lot of swamp coolers on top of houses. For those of you who don’t know what a swamp cooler is, you can still see a few of them on a few homes in the old Bonelli tract in Saugus.

A swamp cooler was a simple machine that made cool air that could be blown into the house, making at least the living room and part of the kitchen habitable in the summer. We didn’t have one in the Pico Cottage. The 12-foot-tall ceilings and transoms above the interior doors allowed air flow, and the place stayed pretty cool. Since here in what is really the high desert we have nights that get cool, only seldom did we have to move downstairs to sleep.

Our automobiles (or the pickups here in the SCV) also didn’t have air conditioning. Well, some people had air-conditioned cars. We didn’t ever get to ride with them.

We had heard about all of those fancy things like air conditioning and could even enjoy going to Newhall to shop, if only to stand in the cool stores basking in the … coolness. I find it funny how the balcony in the American Theater wasn’t used as much by young couples in the summer. It was hot up there. I say this from hearsay. I never took a young lady to the balcony of the American Theater. (Those times were better at one of our two local drive-in movie theaters.)

We didn’t know better. The summer heat was just part of living here in the SCV. A day in late July when the temperature stayed below 100 degrees was sometimes thought of as a “cool” day.

The classrooms at Hart High lacked AC. To be fair, the heating in the winter wasn’t all that great, either.

And remember the phrase we could say after someone stated the temperature was 110? Got it? Here goes: “But it’s a dry heat.”

To really cool off, we went to the beach. Carpinteria was our first choice, but Ventura and Zuma were also popular.

I think we knew there was something better, but we couldn’t do anything to get that something. Not that we didn’t care; it is that we just didn’t know better as the heat was happening.

Now I sit here writing this on a computer and contemplate putting on a sweatshirt to warm up because the AC is set so low. I set it low because it is so hot outside. Maybe I’m making up for all of those years I didn’t have AC.

I do have some other heat-related questions. Like, what was with those water bags that had a canvas outside, a screw top, and you could see them hanging from the outside mirrors of just about every car driving to and from Las Vegas or Phoenix? I never learned what that was all about. We just carried cold drinks in a cooler and a large can of water if the car radiator boiled over.

Some people had little swamp coolers that attached to the car, and as the car moved, air would be forced through the device and across the wetted pads to evaporate the water and cool the air. If you were lucky, you got to sit close to the output of that little cooler.

As a side note, I remember having a car in Hawaii that had never had a heater. I can understand that. For cars sold there, a heater was an option. Just like AC used to be here on the mainland.

Can you even buy a car that doesn’t have a total climate control system?

Today I’ll be back out working on a tractor, moving some dirt back to what was a road. It will be dusty and hot, but unlike the 1960s, I can take breaks in the AC with a cold glass of water. Should be done with the dirt moving this week. Now if only the heat will stop.

What am I saying? The hottest part of our summer is yet to come. Stay safe out there, folks. And if you can’t stand the heat, go into the kitchen. Sit in the AC and have a cold drink of water. Read a book. Read SCVNews.

Be thankful we now know better about the AC.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].