Did it? Yep, it did! 08.11.18

            Need I say more?        Nope! 

            I have been working on a new fan for visitors here at the Ford’s Homestead. As I understand it, most of my reading public grew up in rich families. You know the type, they had central heat and even air conditioning. I wager that these wealthy families went to church’s that had air conditioning.

            Being from a less affluent family, (aka poor) the church we went to did not have air conditioning. This church, “The First Pentecostal Church”, of Cape Girardeau, MO did have a fan. This fan pulled air out of the building through the ceiling, allowing air to come in through the windows. If memory serves me, there was 6 windows, three on each wall. Obviously, it was a small church.

            These windows would open only about 6 inches. There was a nail driven into the window frame to limit the openings in an effort to equalize the amount of air coming in through each window. Mom sat on the right side of the auditorium at the window nearest the back of the church. The breeze was nothing special but it helped stay a little cooler.

            There was one small problem for the people who sat near the windows and that was the packing house. OK, I will explain. The packing house was where they killed pigs and cows, then butchered them. The packing house was located very near the Mississippi river. In fact the church was only a quarter mile from the Mississippi. If the wind was from the right direction, all those sweet odors of rotting dead animals would be pulled into the church through the windows. I believe in the olden day they actually tossed the parts of the animals that they didn’t use, into the Mississippi.

            Now that we have the necessary back ground for this posting, let’s get to what I want to talk about, fans! Along with song books, there were hand held fans at almost every seat. These fans helped those who did not sit near the windows.

            I have occasionally made hand held fans for use here at the Homestead. I do try to make these fans a little interesting. See the photo below.

  

            I have started another handheld air mover, and if it turns out ok, I will show it in an upcoming posting.

            Oh yes, one other thing. We received a little over an inch of badly needed rain last evening. This is a good start and we are hoping for more.

Have a nice, long and safe weekend!

Fantastic senior;       Don Ford