On the A.T. June 27

Grandma had been a stay-at-home mom her entire life, a house-wife. That was how she knew all the things she did around the house: how to sew and crochet, cook, plant flowers, play cards, and guess the words on Wheel of Fortune. When she grew up, her family didn't have money, like many of the families in and around Wanamie, Pennsylvania. Aunt Steffie told me too, how their mother would sew all their dresses and create cloths out of any fabric she could get her hands on.

Sticky summer days at Grandma's never bothered me, I knew inside would be a cool sixty degrees. During winter, it was the opposite, the average temperature in the house was anywhere from eighty to eighty-five degrees. One day, while the air conditioner near the back door wasn't making the house as cool as Grandma and Pop Pop needed it, Grandma showed me a trick to help with the heat. 

"Run your wrists under the cold water," she said, beads of moisture glistening off her forehead. "This is what we used to do when we were kids, we had no air conditioning back then. 

It seemed to work, though I couldn't imagine going a whole summer without air conditioning and running to the faucet ever time I began to sweat. What about the water bill?