This “July hot in August” weather convinces me more than ever that air conditioning must rate among the top five greatest inventions of all time. I’ve never been a fan of hot weather. Pa Hughes allowed it to bother him the least of anyone I’ve ever known. He never liked air conditioning and as much as I loved him and totally respected his opinion, I could never understand why he was so dead set against cool air keeping us more comfortable during the hot, humid months of summer. He would say, “It is not natural to feel cool when the weather is hot.”
One day I asked him, with all due respect, what the difference was in keeping warm in winter when it was freezing cold outside and keeping cool in summer when it was sizzling hot. He always seemed to have an appropriate answer to every question, but my sweet maternal grandfather never answered that question for me. The home I grew up in never had air conditioning. until my uncle and aunt bought the homeplace after my grandparents’ death.
That was one of the first improvements Jim and Shirley made to the home that was so special to us. The warm air in freezing weather and the cool air in sweltering summers brought great comfort as far as the weather was concerned. We often discussed how much comfort we had found in that home over the years – except for the extremes in weather. Shirley summed it up best one day when we were talking about “back in the day “We just didn’t know how good we had it, despite the lack of central heating and cooling,” she said. I don’t suppose any of us know how good we had it until we look back on our lives.
That point was made clear to me this week in a documentary about the life of a very famous person from the mountain country of Northeast Alabama. He grew up with just the bare basics as far as material things are concerned but he had love and care from his parents, siblings, and other relatives. “We had what counted,” said Randy Owen, lead singer of the most well-known band in country music, Alabama. He went on to tell how he did farm work, and any other kind of odd jobs he could find to help their financial situation.
He told how none of the kids from “the mountain” where he lived ever went to school past the eighth grade. He explained that was as far as their community school went and the kids never tried going on to Ft. Payne High School. Because of Randy’s good grades and his interest in poetry and creative writing, one of his teachers urged him to go on and finish high school. Randy Owen went to talk with the high school principal. The principal told him he didn’t want him going to school there because, as that so-called educator put it, “Randy Owen wasn’t smart enough.” I wonder how that principal feels now. Not only did Randy Owen graduate from Ft. Payne High School with honors, he graduated from Jacksonville State University, also with honors. The world knows the rest of his story, and what a successful one it is. His look back on his life was amazing.
Randy and the band are now retired from the music business with more gold records and awards than most country bands could ever dream of having. He now lives on his beloved mountain in Northeast Alabama where he grew up. He raises cattle and does some of the same farm chores he did as he grew up. He credits his parents and some true educators for giving him a feeling of self-worth.
Life provides us with windows. We can look backwards and see how good we had it, even though things were not perfect. We can look forward and take what we learned from looking back to help us move forward. That is true no matter what kind of weather we are having.
