The Burro of Narberth

Central Air

b1.gif (4039 bytes)       Right up front, I’m gonna tell you that I’m a little uncomfortable admitting this, but we got central air conditioning back at the house. Now I’m third generation Narberth, and front porches, fans, and lemonade were good enough for my Daddy and Granddaddy, so that’s good enough for me. Heck, that’s why they invented Ocean City.   

        But we did a little remodeling on the homestead six or seven years ago, and the missus put her foot down, and so while the guy was fixin up the kitchen we got some central air conditioning while he was at it. Still making payments, too.

       The reason I gave in and agreed to it was because you gotta understand what happens to the missus when the hot weather rolls in. I mean you can’t hear yourself think over the sighing and moaning. Her whole personality changes. You’d think I was some hired hand or something. I got cramps in my feet from tiptoeing. I remember summers where we’d go a week without food unless I went out and brought back something already cooked. One bath she took lasted three and half days.

       Anyway, she’s plenty happy now. Of course during this heat wave we’ve started seeing little clusters of neighbors gathering in the street outside our place, staring at our closed windows, muttering to each other. It’s them I feel bad about. I mean they can’t help that they was raised to believe air conditioning was some kind of wasteful luxury for Lower Merion types.

      Of course, right this minute I ain’t feeling too guilty, the missus is cooking tonight.


July 6, 1999

Go back to the Burro's homepage