Possibly it was less hot.  Unfortunately, the historical data on Farmer's Al
manac online only goes back to 1973 (even though it was first published in
the 1700's).  There's another factor for the heat to consider - pavement and
concrete.  I live away from the city.  I always noticed it was much cooler
here at home than when I was at the office, in a business area surrounded by
buildings and roads.

Jill

I think the world climate is changing, but I also think our standards of
comfort have changed. Admittedly, our particular environmental challenge
isn't heat, but still.... I once rented a room in a nearly unmodernized
Victorian house with very erratic heating, and decided, after spending
some time heating large, high-ceilinged rooms with a coal fire, that my
ancestors were tougher than I am. But I knew that, since I used to have to
adjust moving from a drafty old house to a modern (and to my taste, stuffy
and overheated) university residence and back again. I still like
temperatures that are far colder than most people seem to want, and my
mother still sometimes gets indignant about the wastefulness of people who
keep their apartments so warm in winter that they wear shorts and
sleeveless tops inside and let their balcony doors stay open. (Heat's
included in the rent, I'm paying for their wastefulness, grumble,
grumble, etc., etc.)  Old ideas about the right temperature to maintain
in one's home die hard.

But as much as I prefer colder to overheated houses, that old Victorian
was something else again. Of course, the original inhabitants not only
wore lots of clothing, they also undoubtedly had some country girl hired
on to run up and down stairs keeping the fires going!

I do hope that you get your ac fixed. I can adjust to dry heat, if I
really must, but I hate hot and humid, and can sympathize with you!