In Beaufort, the heat has always been on

In June of 1944, the National Weather Service in Charleston recorded the unofficial record high temperature for our area. It was 104 degrees.

Think about that for a minute.

Think about Beaufort in June of 1944.

Population growth was on an upward trend. Housing was extending west beyond downtown and Pigeon Point.

Beaufort Memorial Hospital had opened the month before.

The green steeple on The Parish Church of St. Helena, just three years old, was vibrant and eye-catching.

With war raging in Europe and Asia, both Parris Island and the Marine Corps Air Station were buzzing with activity.

What many homes and businesses in the area were not buzzing with, however, was air conditioning – central or otherwise.

Homes in The Point, especially, had been built before the advent of that miraculous machinery.

The majority of them included porches facing the bay to catch the westerly breezes. Some had box fans in the windows and attic to help move the warm air out of the house. Many “summer kitchens” are still on the grounds of downtown homes, away from the main building. God bless the cooks who had to stand next to those brick ovens.

By late 1940’s and 50’s, Beaufort hotels and restaurants were advertising cold air conditioning. Downtown churches had screen doors and offered congregants hand-held fans in an effort to keep it from being, well, as hot as hell.

Escaping the heat then, as now, involved jumping in the river, where you could chill out in relatively cool 87 degree water.

Even today, when air conditioning makes the inside of our cars icy, some of us go “old school.”

We drive out to Old Sheldon with the windows down, picking up speed and breezes as we go.

We hit downtown for ice cream and thank the geography gods that Beaufort’s flat topography is conducive to hooking up the old garden hose to a Slip N’ Slide.

And, of course, there’s the Water festival which kicked off Friday and runs through July 24. At the least, expect a good soaking by a Beaufort Jasper Water and Sewer Authority truck. After all, it’s called “Water Festival” for a reason.

But take heart, Beaufortonians. We’re used to this. We’ve adapted and have built our endurance. We’ve learned to sweat elegantly.

And winter will be here before we know.

Both days of it.

This story was originally published July 13, 2016 at 10:18 AM with the headline "In Beaufort, the heat has always been on."