The hum of the air conditioner - speaktherights.com

We are fortunate that we have what we refer to as “central-air” in our house. I need it. My lungs don’t always cooperate and the flow of fresh air is very good for them. I wish it were not that way. But I am not going to complain when I have fresh air at the push of a button on a gadget that it mounted to the wall in a hallway of our house. I would say I am a very fortunate man.

Right now I am on the porch listening to the hum of an outside air conditioning “unit”. That thing must be one of the toughest pieces of equipment ever made. How many times that fan goes around….I will never know. I am just thankful it is there.

In the house I spent the majority of my childhood within in Brownstown, Indiana, we did not have air-conditioning. But don’t feel bad. We had some marvelous shade trees. And…know that we lived on the east side end of town. The last proper street on the east end of town…Jackson Street. 204 S. Jackson Street to be specific. The rest of the of town rose uphill from where we were. Translation? The sun set very early in our backyard. On the west side of town, the sun hung up there and baked for a long while after we were already enjoying the cool afternoon/evening breezes of our shade trees. It was a great place to be.

No…we didn’t have air-conditioning. I really didn’t think that much of it. We had the sounds that only a house full of open windows can bring forth. They are sounds I cherish to this day. Two blocks up the first hill was the town’s main street. On it was the county seat of Jackson County and the courthouse. There was…and still is a bell that rings at the top of the courthouse every hour on the hour. We knew what time it was as we were playing baseball in the yard. If my friend needed to be home at 4 and we just heard three CLANGS of the courthouse clock, we knew we had better make the most of the next hour.

On the really hottest of the hot days then, I remember walking into to icebox that was the JC Penney store in Seymour. My folks did a bit of shopping there. I don’t know if it is still in business out at the “Jackson Park Shopping Center” on the west side of Seymour, Indiana. I suppose it is still there. But oh how I remember it was so cold in that place on a hot summer day. No-matter how hot it was, or how cold the JC Penney Store was, on the way home we would stop at the little ice cream stand near the east end of Seymour on 2nd or 3rd Street? Kovener’s Korner. I just looked it up. It is on 2nd Street…and yes it is still in business. You should go.

This ice cream establishment is where I acquired my affinity for chocolate chip ice cream. I couldn’t tell you when and why I ordered it. I do remember that is where I had my first scoop of chocolate chip ice cream and when my dear wife, Carrie, and I go to the Massachusetts, Vermont, or New Hampshire to a Friendly’s Ice Cream joint, I always order chocolate chip ice cream and I always think about Kovener’s Korner.

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