I recall under similar circumstances a retreat to the basement in our home in Wellesley in the 50s, where we were met with damp chill air, but for that relief you had to put up with air that rusted a chisel in just a few days. And of course the drip drip drip of the condensation off the cast iron water pipes running over head.
None the less, that's where mother sat in a lounge chair until it was time to cook dinner. Father had to have his dinner ready at 6 pm every night. I would set the step-ladder up underneath the hatch to the attic. Pushed the hatch up and out of the way, and pulled the eye-hook routed string hanging down through the open hatch to suck the remainder of that cool air from the basement into the rest of the house through the cracks in the cellar doors. The air handler was a belt driven 48" industrial fan set in a crude homemade wind tunnel, sealed to prevent air from being sucked in from outdoors, blowing out the attic window at the front of the two story house. The fan was driven by a 2 HP electric motor that made the belt squeal for 10 seconds when turned on. Eventually the solid wood hatch was replaced in the summer with a screen frame with a slot for the string. Saved time, and allowed mother to turn the fan on any time she pleased. The wood hatch was insulated by glueing styrofoam blocks on to the upper side for the winters. By bedtime you could open the windows downstairs and in the upstairs bedrooms. Frugal father would creep out of bed and turn the fan off after he thought we were all asleep. Hah! Too damn hot to sleep! Either I or mother would creep out a few minutes later to turn that fan back on. We explained to father when he complained, that it took more electricity for us to turn the fan back on than if he had left it on in the first place, so leave it on! My brain seems to roll back through those memories more often these days. Thanks for the memories Mark! On Jul 22, 2011, at 12:42 , Mark Roberts wrote: > ... I'm in the basement editing my Ireland photos. > > -- > Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia > www.robertstech.com Joseph McAllister [email protected] http://gallery.me.com/jomac -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
