Too hot to work? Where were these people when I was stacking hay in the barn loft at 14 years old? They don’t know what hot is.
Or when I was picking green beans in a hotter than He!! Arkansas summer back in 1962! And 63! And 64!
You really want nasty work try cleaning out a ten thousand capacity chicken house with scoop shovels in 100 degrees and high humidity! The heat and the ammonia will get to you! $1.00 a manure spreader load!
Hot again back in 1976! 1978! 1982, 1984 (116 degrees), Then in the 1990s it was hot,hot hot again!
I was working out in the sun with no shade around 2003 and it was 108-110 degrees that week. Thought I was gonna die!
I remember days when it was so hot we went and laid on the bed and let the sweat just roll of us! No AC or fan!
In the middle of the night we would wake up and sweat would still be rolling off us!
On the other hand, in the hotter than He!! Intermountain regions of the West, in 1955-56, it was so hot I freckled and tanned while my brother blistered! For relief we just got in the shade, and at night it got so cold we needed quilts!
**stacking hay in the barn loft at 14 years old?**
I’ve done that in the Ozarks! The day would be HOT, work loading the hay on a trailer, then stack it in a barn loft.
Next day do it again, and the hay in the barn will begin to ferment and heat up if not completely dry and make it hotter!
The old farmer we worked for SOLD hay to others by the bale, so he made the bales light, around 45 pounds.
When he baled for himself we hauled bales weighing 75-90 lb!
We were paid the same, light or heavy bale.
Then there was the truckers who hauled in Colorado alfalfa. They baled it wet as they sold it by weight. We would unload those bales, and they would be HOT! You could actually see the steam and vapor as you unloaded the truck. I often wondered if any ever caught fire on him.
The “olden days” were not all that good.