Today should be the last day of the heat wave we have been having in the Northeast and I am grateful. Juana and I have stayed inside (and away from the gardens) more than typical for July. We have been fortunate, however, in that we open up the house and shut off the air conditioning each night and get a good sleep. A breeze off a nearby lake and the quiet chirping of insects lulls us to sleep.
Such was never the case for my grandfather (center in the picture). He lived in Donora, PA, an old industrial town on the Monongahela River, perhaps most infamously known for the worst air pollution disaster in U.S. history in 1948 that killed 70 and sickened over 6,000 residents.
Without air conditioning, my grandfather retreats to the basement on a hot weekend with his cronies (prominent men in Donora) to play ping-pong in the earth-cooled air of the mid-50s.
I don’t think my mother was happy when I found this picture but I marvel at the simple way my grandfather kept cool in his boxer shorts. Every other picture I have has him wearing a suit and tie regardless of occasion. I think it quite sweet and endearing as he died before I turned two and I never got to know him.
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I like this picture, evocative of a gone era.