In earlier essays, there was a tribute to railings and to our bashful commodes, both of which bring joy and comfort to our lives. In that same spirit, I believe it is time to pay tribute to fans of all kinds.
For the first twelve or thirteen years of my life, I was forced to attend religious services on Sundays, offered in succession by the Southern Baptists, the Nazarenes, the Pentecostals, and, finally, the Free-Will Baptists. Attending those services gave me a case of supreme angst, which of course is a word that I did not know at the time. However, those services provided me with a start for this essay. So it appears that there was some merit in my exposure to the Christian religion.
On the back of the church pews in nearly every case was a ledge on the railings which held a hymnal and perhaps the King James Bible. But in the summertime, which in St. Louis, my home, started in April, it also held another important commodity. There was also a fan. It was not electric, of course. It was provided to give some small degree of comfort to the un-air-conditioned churches in which the fundamentalist services were held. In all of my church going, I will tell you that these fans were always given as a donation from the local undertaker. The back of the fan had his name in bold print. I suppose this was to condition the church goers that they would eventually need his services and that they would be inclined towards the donor because he gave them comfort in the hot climate of St. Louis. As a curious observation, the fans were almost always used by women. They were never used by men or their children. I have no idea what this means but that was always the case.
In those Depression days, there was no such thing as home air conditioning. There were a few ineffectual fans that were unable to cool us off. In my case, I discovered that there was often a breeze blowing between the back porch and the garage. My secret was soon discovered by my parents and that is where they held family conclaves in the summer.
St. Louis is located on the banks of the Mississippi River and is about six miles downstream from the Missouri River. These two rivers lend their humidity to the already moist air. Hotels had no air conditioning and provided only a small electric fan until about 1950. A male guest donning a freshly starched shirt might well discover that the collar had wilted by the time he had dressed and gone to the dining room for breakfast.
So much for St. Louis and its humid climes. When it comes to electric fans, may I suggest that this house may be over-fanned but it is a comfort to those of us who reside here. The house was constructed in 1958 and clearly had no air conditioning at all. At the top of the steps, there is a large fan with blades of about 14 or 15 inches in length. On my first visit to this house, while I was still looking for a property to buy, I saw a toggle switch and turned it on. Instantly, the owner of the house at that time came forth to protest that the fan should be turned off. She was well within her rights because that fan could pull the ashes out of the fireplace which is located two levels below the fan itself.
The rest of the house now has fans galore. For example, in the attic there is a thermostatically controlled fan that is engaged when the temperature reaches 85˚ or more. Its objective is to pull hot air in the attic and expel it from a nearby window. When my daughters lived here, there was a large room on essentially the third floor of this split level house that was difficult to air condition. As a result, electric fans were used to remedy the situation. Moving down a level is our bedroom, which has a swivel fan that is used in those cases when it is judged that air conditioning is not needed. In all of the bathrooms, there are exhaust fans to take the humidity out of the room.
Moving down to the lower levels, there is an exhaust fan above the stove that expels hot air and keeps it from coming into the room. There are also fans in the kitchen as well as the living room to provide comfort on those days when it is questionable that air conditioning is needed.
In the basement where our so-called gymnasium is located, there are fans galore. My wife has one fan and I have the use of two or three more.
In the basement there is an electric fan associated with the heating and air conditioning system that moves hot air in the winter and cold air in the summer up to the other quarters of the house. On the back porch, there is a ceiling fan which makes it possible on hot days to stay there. In the garage our car has a fan attached to the crankshaft which cools the engine. This is a very important fan because if it failed to operate, the engine would seize, and the car would be useless.
Well, so much for this house. But perhaps old-timers will remember when offices were un-air conditioned. There were always debates about how far the windows should be opened and in those days there was a brisk business in paperweights aimed at holding down papers on desks.
Before concluding this essay, I need to say a few words about a wonderful friend, Walter Fennessey and his relationship to fans. Walter was responsible for telecommunications arrangements with the sub-Saharan region of the world. One day in 1982, Walter proposed a trip to four of the countries that he visited regularly. It was a frigid day in New Jersey and the thought of going to Africa gave me a warm feeling. So I told Walter, “Why Not?” On December 24, 1997, I wrote an essay called, “Why Not?” to record the events on that trip. Here is one paragraph from that essay that relates to fans.

So now here is my friend Walt Fennessey who is sweating mightily at 4000 to 5000 feet. And I am too. When Walt saw the cabin door to the crew quarters open, he could see the Engineer. And so he planned to ask him to please give us some more air conditioning. The Engineer was fanning himself with a large magazine. Upon hearing Walt’s request, he located another large magazine and passed it to Walt. That was the air conditioning.

Walter was a wonderful person who unfortunately is now deceased. When I think of fans, my thoughts inevitably turn toward Walter Fennessey, a good man who sweat in the beat up airplanes flown by African Airways.
In this small essay, I had no intention of going into the structure of fans. My intention, on the other hand, was to call attention to the fact that fans contribute greatly to our comfort and well-being. I think it is fair to say that they have brought joy to all of our lives, particularly those who can remember the days when there was no air conditioning.
And so now, this old essayist feels better that he has paid tribute to fans. On the other hand, he still remembers the manual fans donated by undertakers to the churches. Would it be fair to assume that the undertakers deducted their donation to the churches for fans from their income tax? I hold no position on this last question, but with the coming of air conditioning it is probably a moot one in any case. But as everyone I hope will agree, fans bring joy to our lives and as such should be widely celebrated.
E. E. CARR
July 16, 2009
Essay 396
~~~
Kevin’s commentary: I don’t know what strikes Pop to write this sort of essay, but I’m glad it does.
Growing up in Texas in the 90s, I actually didn’t realize that air conditioning was an optional thing. I thought houses just came with air conditioning in the same way that they come with, say, roofs. If you don’t have one, you’ve got something that looks kinda like a house but is in fact something much less.
Upon going to school in Chicago I was expected to sign up for dorms. A big selling point of the dorm I chose was that it had been recently fitted with an AC system. I actually took this as a bad sign — since AC was a default in my mind, bragging about an AC system is akin to saying “your dorm room comes with windows that you can SEE THROUGH.” Point being that if you even need to mention these things you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Turns out you don’t really need AC in Chicago, especially if you’re not there during the summers. Lesson learned. Heaters, though, are quite nice to have around in every room.