We’ve had a warm spring thus far–in the 80s most days. I refuse to turn on the air conditioner as long as I can delay the inevitable. This week was cool and breezy, and tomorrow the low is 40F, kinda hard on the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant I planted last week, but what are you gonna do? I could cover them, but I’m headed to Savannah, and I wouldn’t have time to uncover. Then, they would roast in the 90s later this week. I’ll take my chances.
We’ve kept the windows open at night too. I have asthma and allergies, but with the help of Clarinex, I can enjoy the cool breezes. Even though the days are hot, the nights are mild and full of sound. Before I go to sleep, I count my lucky stars because the weather has been so accommodating. I already hear frogs and toads speaking their love talk to potential mates. Owls ask their eternal “Who, Who?” The feet of other small night creatures scrabble outside my bedroom door. It’s still too early for the locusts and cicadas, but soon they’ll also start, and it’s a cacophony of sound from dawn to dusk when they do.
The night sounds remind me of my childhood. No one I knew had air conditioning in the 1960s. We all slept peacefully with our windows open. My sister, Nita and I, had our bedroom on the top floor of the house, and our window faced south. We would open it and watch for lightning of spring storms that raced across our prairie. Later my parents got window-unit air conditioners for downstairs and finally up where we were. Although it was much more comfortable in summer, we missed the wind that ruffled our curtains and entered our dreams.
We would visit our grandparents in Missouri at least twice a year, and they had a screened-in sleeping porch. If it was hot and humid in Oklahoma, it was always stickier and hotter in Aurora. The adults put our cousins and us out on the sleeping porch where soft breezes licked its edges and kept us cooler than the adults further inside. When I visited P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm a few years ago, I was thrilled to see he had a sleeping porch upstairs with little twin beds all lined up in a row. It was much fancier than the one my grandparents had, but it still brought back wonderful memories.
These spring mornings, I wake up refreshed by bird song. Because of the gardens, we have so many birds from Cardinals and Eastern Bluebirds to Black-capped Chickadees, American Goldfinches, House Finches and a multitude of common sparrows. Crows call to each other all throughout the day. After listening to my crows for so long, I know when they are alarmed or are sounding out an “All is well.” Did you know crows are among the smartest creatures on Earth? My crows even talk about me when I come outside. They don’t see me as a threat, and I’m glad.
Every bird is trying to find his mate, and they make living out here a joy. Country sounds are so different from the city where I grew up. Spring is quite noisy, but not with traffic or emergencies. I don’t know if I could ever go back to living in town. When I travel and stay in a downtown hotel, I always have trouble sleeping for I’m no longer used to city sounds. Out here, I hardly ever hear a siren. I can only think of a couple of times in fact, unless you consider the tornado sirens a half-mile away. However, suburbs are starting to encroach on my prairie paradise. A housing addition popped up only a couple of miles south of here. Another horse ranch nearby went up for sale, so it’s only a matter of time. I don’t live that far out in the country anymore.
So, today, when my nineteen-year-old son asked why we aren’t running the air conditioner, I started to answer that I wanted to keep the breezes and beautiful sounds for as long as I could. However, before I could say anything, he said, “Because we want to be hippies?”
I said, “Yeah, hippies.” It was answer enough.
Dee, I love everything about this post! Except, maybe you shouldn’t have introduced me to P Allen Smith’s sleeping porch — now I’m filled with envy!
Dee, I love everything about this post! Except, maybe you shouldn’t have introduced me to P Allen Smith’s sleeping porch — now I’m filled with envy!
Hippies, that’s priceless! I’m forever calling myself a granola eating, tree hugging hippie freak! We are always the last to put on our AC around here. There was a little light frost this morning, and only got up to 67 degrees, yet the back door neighbor has her AC on already. We, however, still have our heat on. I’ve never slept on a sleeping porch, but I remember well sleeping with the windows open all summer. I can’t remember anyone having air conditioning back then, but we survived nicely, didn’t we?
What a good Sunday morning read! We slept with the window open last night and I slept like a log. I grew up in the country and now in retirement am back in the country, LOVE IT! I’m in love with that sleeping porch! Thanks Dee for slowing us down a little in time.
Great post, Dee! I love being able to sleep with the windows open, too, not just for the cool breezes, but for all the sounds you mention. Just thinking how much fun it would be to sleep on that porch!
I loved this post. Like you, I like keeping the windows open as long as I can, even when it’s hot and humid and the pollen is falling and making the inside of the house yellow. It’s worth it for the breezes and the sounds of birds and frogs. And believe it or not, the 1904 house I grew up in (suburb of New York City) had a sleeping porch! Like you, we didn’t rely on air conditioning. In fact, we had only one room air conditioner in the house. We’d congregate in that room when it got brutally hot, but most of the time, we sweated it out.
You brought me back and I’m feeling real nostalgic! There’s nothing like a bedroom window open on a warm summer night…..we had honeysuckle by the window and it smelled wonderful. There were woods all around and the sounds of the night were a lullabye. With AC, the windows hardly ever are kept open anymore……I miss it…..thanks for the great post…..
I would take the “hippie” thing as a compliment !! What a lovely evocative post Dee. I could almost hear the frogs and the owls. I shall also listen much more closely to our crows to hear what they are saying about me, as I have not yet learned to distinguish their ‘caws’. Bit like tuning into the cries of your own baby I guess.
Hi Jane! Oh believe me, I did. It made me chuckle. Yes, listen to your crows. You’ll notice that they almost chuckle throughout the day. Kind of a day watch instead of a night one.
There’s a crow that now comes to my backyard and teases my Scottie. I can tell he’s doing it on purpose. He lands on the grass until my dog goes nuts, and then flies up to the edge of the roof and stares down at my barking canine. I can almost hear this crow laughing.
Oh, I’m sure he is.
Right now we have the heat on, but when it’s warmer, I’m like you–I like to keep the windows open as much as possible. We live close to the city here, so we hear the interstate and town sounds. But at our cottage in a more rural area I sleep so well, listening to the “lack of traffic,” the crickets, and the gentle breezes off the lake. We didn’t have central air when I was a kid either, but Mom and Dad would turn on the portable fans when it got really hot. Thanks for memories. I love the idea of a sleeping porch! We have a screened porch here where I spend a lot of my time during the summer.
Hey Beth, guess what, we had the heat on last night too. Our weather just can’t seem to settle itself, but that’s spring for us. Thank you for sharing your memories with me too.~~Dee
In 1974 at the age of 8, we moved from Indio, CA to Antlers in Pushmataha County in SE corner of Oklahoma. One stoplight town. We couldn’t move into our house till the next day. The realtor invited us to stay at their house just outside of town. I was given the couch in the living room. They left the front door open not sure the screen door even had a latch. I lay awake all night sure we where going to die in our beds!
I feel the same way about air conditioning. I miss the sounds of summer once it’s turned on. But that is several months away for us. We are just getting started on daffodils and forsythia.
I’m glad you get a long spring after such a long winter.
Well then peace and love 🙂 Great post. Reminds me of my childhood sleeping in front of my open window. I was the only one without an air conditioning window unit but I loved it. The mock cherry outside my window made me feel like I was living in a pink cloud. It’s harder to do now in the city with the noises and safety issues but it’s nice now and then. Those porch pictures are something else!