My dad was one of six other children in his family.
They grew up in a two story house in southern Michigan that was walking distance from all of the schools and local businesses.
Unlike today’s children, my parents were sent outside on days when they weren’t at school. You weren’t allowed to stay in the living room watching cartoons all day, my grandparents forced them to play with their friends outdoors. This was fine when the weather was pleasant, but a large majority of the year is spent in freezing cold in that particular region of the country. It didn’t matter because they were put in their snow pants, boots, and winter coats and pushed outside regardless of how cold it was. The summer wasn’t much better either, because often the temperatures climbed into the lower 90s with extremely high humidity as well. It was particularly rough inside as well because they didn’t have an air conditioner back then. They had a central furnace and fireplace to keep the house warm when it was cold outside, but in the summer they simply opened windows and turned on fans. My dad said that it was miserable on the hottest summer nights because the heat would rise into the second floor where they were all sleeping. Since he shared a room with his younger brother, he didn’t have full control of the fans and windows in the room. His brother would claim he was too cold while my dad was always too hot. It wasn’t until I was a child in the 1990s that my grandparents finally purchased an air conditioner for their home.