Turn off the A/C (air conditioning) and effectively most churches would have many more of their pews empty. Parishioners today are accustomed (and demand) all the comforts and conveniences available that members enjoy at their homes the other six+ days of the week. Imagine a sweltering Sunday when the mercury hovers in the upper 90s as suit and tie wearing men, Sunday attire dressed women and bored hushed children sit miserably in sweaty discomfort attempting to listen to a possibly fiery sermon when the thermostat is off duty. Even dedicated church goers would probably seek a cooler, spring-like media alternative setting, enjoying the comforts of a favorite recliner in the home den getting their religion on the tube. But in my youth, such was not the case. There was no air conditioning (cool aid) at least any such as we are familiar with today. Most of the conditioning of the air in the rural churches I attended as a child was produced by far more primitive ways. I presume in some of the smaller struggling congregations this still might be evident today. I spoke to an acquaintance recently who expressed modern familiarity with this age-old practice of using hand fans to at least pretend to ward off oppressive heat.
Where there is a need, there is an opportunity for someone to fill the void.
Years ago personal air circulation was provided by a fan yielder seeking respite from oppressive heat in a sometimes crowded building surrounded by the outdoor mid day summer heat. Of course there were the opened windows but these open spaces provided little breeze. For some, there were individual fans readily available, the folding kinds that were often present which would collapse for easy storage in women’s pocket books. For some others there were fans provided by a business marketing a service or a product. These were the ones with which I was most familiar.
Providing a unique service that everyone would ultimately need and to a group of people who might give thought to the service more often than the non-churched, funeral homes offered fans for potential customers’ convenience but especially primarily as a tool for its advertizing strategy. Generally the two sided fans had on the front side an appropriate picture usually of a religious nature such as praying hands or of a biblical scene. On the reverse side, there was the marketing information, the name of the business and pertinent contact information. The fan itself had a stapled handle for easy hand operation. Sizes varied. Occasionally there were also fans made from natural products such as dried fan-shaped materials.
Then there were the innovative fans usually created as a desperate last resort to provide relief. A church bulletin provided all that was needed for anyone to quickly make a few strategic folds creating a makeshift fan to deal with the unyielding heat of the day.
Of course you can’t please everyone even with modern comfort cooling equipment – either the indoor climate is too hot or too cold so what might be a possible solution?
The old timey hand fans might be the answer.
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Bill Lee, PO Box 128,
Hamer, SC 29547
