Houses were built with attic fans and jalousie windows, as well as off the ground, to cool them off before air conditioning arrived.

Termites didn’t become a problem until lawns were put in and irrigated, before that, it was too dry for them to survive. Before things started changing, summers over here were hot and fairly rainless. so termites didn’t have much survival potential.

As the Gulf keep things humid, swamp coolers didn’t work. My Dad rigged one, having using used the system when he was stationed in Tucson. but it just made things soggier, not cooler.

When the concrete block building came in, everything changed. They were ovens in the summer and ice boxes in the winter until the jalousie windows were replaced and real HVAC systems were installed.

Which of course is why the banning of Chlordane was such a disaster in the Sunbelt. It took ten years after the banning of Chlordane before a suitable replacement (Termidor and to a lesser extent Premise) was introduced, during which entire neighborhoods in cities with especially bad termite infestations ended up having to be torn down because the termites ate them into structurally unsound termite spit and paper edifices… generally those neighborhoods built in the early 60’s, on concrete slabs, in areas where Formosan termites thrive. Neighborhoods built *before* residential air conditioning became common, I might add… my 1959 ranch house in Scottsdale AZ (on a concrete slab) had a swamp cooler, but the air conditioning was added a decade later.

-Badtux the Construction Penguin

Well, Ringo spends a lot of time on the roof, but she’s more of a gargoyle than ceiling cat. We don’t actually have basements. House, especially older houses, were elevated to provide air flow underneath for cooling, so SU doesn’t really qualify as a “basement” cat.

Apparently living under the house is a good living, soft coat, perky whiskers…