Has no one ever heard of air conditioning around here?

I knew my aunt and uncle lived in Louisiana, but I had never been to visit them.

When my grandfather passed away, we packed up the car so we could go to the funeral. My mom was excited to see her sister again, but I wasn’t so thrilled. All I knew about Louisiana was that it was hot and they had all kinds of mosquitoes and alligators. I thought everyone lived near the swamps and had fans instead of air conditioning. My mom told me it was all nonsense and no self-respecting Louisiana resident would be living near the swamps. When we got to my aunt’s, mom was right. They weren’t living near the swamps, but they had the swamps for their backyard. They didn’t have air conditioning either. I couldn’t figure out how we were going to be comfortable without any air conditioning. I had to sleep in a room with my cousin Ed, who called me a city boy. I took offense to this, but I never said too much. He had a huge fan in his room which he said was better than air conditioning. He had a window that was always open and there was some kind of sheer cloth over it. He told me it was mosquito netting and it kept the bugs out of the house. I asked if anyone had air conditioning around here? He told me that there was no one he knew of. I had to admit that air conditioning would have felt good that first night, but as soon as I got used to the swamp sounds, I slept really well.
heating and cooling