frenchmills's Blog

I see the newscasters worrying about how people working outside are going to be able to stand this torturous 86o weather.

What?

My gosh -- what are they going to do when it gets hot?

If people begin thinking that 86 is hot and it's too tough to work outside in this, then what's going to happen when the mercury reaches 90 (as it is predicted this week) or even 95 or 100?  By this kind of a disastrous outlook, people would have to stop working on highways or roofs or other construction work.  Or farming.

Imagine that Hwy40 would take 6 months longer, or that your place of business closes down because the roof couldn't be repaired, or maybe that we get less food because of a shorter work time.

The highways are built, roofs are installed and repaired, farmers till their fields and field hands harvest crops (not all of course, since machines have been invented for many crops), and have been for decades, all in the middle of summer and 90+ and 100+ temperatures.

Let me relate to you some of my own experiences.

Like the time this one guy and I put a shingle roof on a house in 100+ weather -- we'd take turns -- 1 hr. on and 1 hr. off.

Or the time I left a refrigeration company to work for a roofing company.  Went from a freezer at -4 to a roof when the ground temp was 103.

Or the various summers hefting 60+# bales of hay above my head onto a flatbed wagon.

Or the time, when I working in MU's conscientious objector civilian work program and 3 of us took hoes and machetes and chopped 2+" diameter cockleburs and other weeds out of a cornfield on the Missouri riverbottom near Columbia in 100+ weather.

When you have to do it, you have to do it.  There's no sympathy involved.

I grew up without air-conditioning.  Nowadays, every summer, the weather people will remind us of the record setting temperatures around 1954.  I was 10 then.  All I remember is playing outside and not paying attention to the heat.  I do remember getting a nickel sized sun blister on my shoulder.

There have been times and places when you would be castigated if you couldn't hack it in hot weather.

The time I remember best, though, was 1962, when my parents and I (I have to let you know that my parents were both 55 yrs old -- and on this particular occasion my Mother worked harder than I did) went over to the farm my Dad had made arrangements to buy to clear about a half acre of honey locust trees -- not the thornless ones -- those with thorns all over -- 3' thorn branches with 1' branches coming off of them.  My Mother and I threw a rope up on the trees and each of grabbed one end and pulled on the tree while my Dad took a large circular saw on a gas-powered combination mower-saw and cut them down.  We then sawed limbs off and piled them all up with old tires at the bottom to get the fire started.  Then we burnt them.

When we came home, the weather man related that the high temperature for the day was 110o.

Sorry guys, 86o is nothing.