Creature Comforts

Nowadays, it's only a matter of sliding a dial or a click or two, and either you fire up the furnace or your air conditioner kicks to life to make your home a comfortable place to live. Once upon a time not so long ago, no such possibility existed. Even in Biblical times, and I'm sure before, kings had summer palaces up in the mountains or by the seaside. Wherever the temperatures weren't so uncomfortable in the summer.

The less fortunate had no choice but to make do with passive cooling. If one could afford a slave to move a fan back and forth, that might be considered active, but most of those folks planned ahead in the construction of their homes to take advantage of the maximum benefit of any air movement----build on a hilltop, high ceilings, transoms above interior doors, and/or big shaded windows.

Henry Buckmeyer in my Texas Romance Family Saga built Sue's house three stories high on a hill with an open three-story interior hallway that allowed heat to rise and escape through the roof's louvered vents.His system definitely couldn't compare with our modern day air conditioners, but it moved air. Heat rises. Certainly made a Texas summer more comfortable.

While that worked well for hundred degree days, it posed more of a problem when temperatures fell. Rooms with ten-foot ceilings proved hard to heat, so those attic louvers were closed and covered, battened down to keep the heat in. Each room had its own fireplace. That caused another problem . . . keeping the wood box full.

 These days, cutting tree trunks with a chainsaw and splitting the chunks with a gas-powered log-splitter would take one man a solid month to cut, split, and stack enough wood to heat Henry's house over the winter.

But with two men using cross saws, wedges, sledges,  and hand axes, chopping that same amount, would keep a fair-sized crew of men busy more than a month.


Next time your electrical power goes down, leaving you without heat or air conditioning, think about those rugged individuals who settled this great country in spite of its weather.

Fun fact: Before the widespread use of air conditioning in the 1960s, Texas----one of the warmer states----boasted a population of a million people. Now, we have over eighteen million!   

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  BIO: Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and a quick scroll through her novels’ rankings by Christian readers attests to the Father’s faithfulness. She loves writing almost as much as singing the new songs He gives her—look her up on YouTube to hear a few. Her high school sweetheart husband won her heart fifty-one years ago, and now they share four children and seventeen grandsugars. Ron and Caryl live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door. 

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Shoes-on-the-Ground Research

One aspect of being a writer I enjoy a lot is the research. Lots of information can be gathered by spending time online. Now, the trips we used to take to the reference desk at the local library are reserved only for when we get stuck. Clicking links at the bottom of Wikipedia pages can sometimes be like going down the proverbial rabbit hole. Some can lead to obscure articles. But I have followed URLs and found original sheet music from the 1850s or playbills from a 1870s opera. This time what I wanted would be most easily gained from a visit to the site. I was already making the trip to Texas for a writers’ retreat so I tacked on a day before and after to conduct research.

first owner was Goldbeck who built cabin in 1854

1890 blacksmith shop

Last Thursday, I spent time in a small town named Comfort that I’ve kept in my mind as being the one I’ve used as a base for my fictional town of Dorado. I walked the layout of the real town, snapped some pictures of the historic downtown, and gathered what information I could. The series, Dorado, Texas, contains both contemporary and historical stories with ancestors, descendants, and entangled families.

Ingenhuett General Store 1881

Immediately following the acquisition of Texas from Mexico, immigrants came from Europe to settle the land. From 1845 to 1861, many towns were founded by German Freethinkers, who were mostly intellectuals who believed in reason and democracy as ways to create community, instead of religious and political autocracy. Some even held intellectual forums in Latin.

Freethinkers were advanced for the times in that they believed in an individual philosophy over religious dogma and advocated equal rights for all people with many working toward the abolishment of slavery. A respect for life and nature was an important part of their moral values. Secular education and organizations of various types provided social and cultural activities.

I've been away for four years and I'd almost forgotten the gorgeous cloud formations. I'd also forgotten about the wide variety of roadkill--skunk, opossum, deer, fox, raccoon, armadillo.

Now that I’ve walked the streets and gathered local literature, I know I will write the town with more details and accuracy.

I'd love to hear from others how important a sense of place is in the stories they choose.