Buses of the Lima City Lines parade through downtown in mid-May 1939, shortly after the buses replaced Lima’s electric streetcars. In July 1939, the bus line offered residents inexpensive, four-hour “cool-down” rides on summer evenings.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
On a hot summer day in a world without widespread air conditioning, Lima’s new bus company stepped up with an offer of inexpensive access to an oasis of evening cool.
“A solution to hot evenings will be offered by the Lima City Lines, Inc., under a new plan to be inaugurated Thursday. Without paying an extra fare a passenger may ride the company’s buses on any line continuously from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.,” The Lima News wrote July 27, 1939, a day when the temperature reached 94 degrees.
The Lima City Lines, which boasted their Superior Coach-built buses had the latest in ventilation, had announced their arrival with a bus parade through downtown in mid-May 1939. The buses replaced the electric streetcars that had served the city since July 4, 1886.
“A ‘cool-off’ ticket will be presented (to) a passenger when he boards a bus and the ticket may be retained throughout the evening,” The Lima News explained. “Rides may be taken continuously from one end of a line to another on all the city lines so long as necessary changes are made at transfer points. For the price of a trip downtown and back, a passenger may ride continuously for four hours.”
Pioneered in Baltimore and popular in Indianapolis, “cool-off” rides were one way to cope with the oppressively hot summers of the “Dirty Thirties,” the decade of depression, drought and dust storms, one of which in May 1934 deposited a coating of dirt on a swath of country from the Northern Plains to the Eastern Seaboard, including Lima.
According to the National Weather Service the years 1930 through 1936 brought some of the hottest summers on record across the Great Plains, Upper Midwest and Great Lakes regions.
The relentless heat arrived promptly as the decade began. In mid-April 1930, Lima sweltered in near-90-degree heat that proved to be only a taste of what summer would bring.
On July 20, 1930, Lima recorded a high of more than 100 degrees.
“From midmorning, the city sweltered in sizzling heat from a dazzlingly brilliant sun,” The Lima News wrote. “A breeze stirred throughout the day but brought no succor as the wind was dry and hot, licking up moisture wherever it fell.”
Crops, already starved for moisture “wilted visibly under the vertical rays” and “200 embattled farmers and Lima citizens” fought a fire east of Lima that swept across 300 acres, destroyed three oil storage tanks, trees, hay, crops and pasture grass, The Lima News reported.
“Thousands of Limaites sought relief from the heat Sunday on the highways, in swimming pools and nearby lakes. A record attendance of 1,500 persons were reported to have visited Springbrook bathing pool, officials announced Monday. An equally large number is said to have visited the pool at McCullough Lake,” The Lima News wrote.
Statewide, 13 drownings were reported, while a 70-year-old man Lima died after falling off a third-floor window ledge where he was perched seeking relief from the heat in a cooling night breeze.
Allen County’s health commissioner advised residents to “keep mentally and physically occupied in other matters and forget the heat.” Dr. J.J. Sutter told The Lima News that “heat, humidity and stagnation of air are causes of ‘heat stroke’” while “air in motion or staying in windy places will prevent these strokes.”
Finally, Dr. Sutter advised, “Watch your cooling system – the heart and the skin – and see that sufficient air in motion is supplied them.”
In 1930, that sufficient “air in motion” would not be found in air conditioning. Although some businesses and factories were air-conditioned, home units were just showing up in stores and were prohibitively expensive.
Meanwhile, the summers continued to be sweltering, and the advice offered by Dr. Sutter kept showing up in various forms. After a hot spell in early July 1931, an editorial in the Lima Morning Star & Republican-Gazette dusted it off.
“In addition to all the advice about physical health and comfort,” the newspaper wrote, “the doctors tell us not to worry. It is well to keep your temper these days, too. Remember the other fellow is just as uncomfortable as you are.”
A heat wave in July 1932 prompted The Lima News on July 15 to urge its readers to remember safety when trying to cool down. Heat sufferers, the newspaper advised, should not “leave the electric fan on all night, go for a swim after eating a hearty meal or indulge in some equally foolish act in an attempt to regain some respite from the terrific heat. It is well to remember the warning of health experts, namely in torrid temperatures one should eat, drink and dress sparingly.”
In 1934, Lima residents, like those of much of the U.S., could use all the advice on coping available. On Aug. 10, 1934, with a month and a half of summer remaining, the Associated Press wrote: “Present-day grandfathers brag about ‘the cold winters when I was a boy,’ but when the boys of today become grandfathers they’ll probably brag about ‘the hot summer we had back in 1934.’”
A heat wave in mid-July 1934 sent temperatures soaring over 100 degrees.
“Another assault from a persistent heat wave Saturday boosted the death toll of three blistering days to calamity proportions and burned more havoc in the nation’s fields,” The Lima News wrote July 22, 1934, adding that Saturday, July 21 “was the hottest day of all time in the city.”
Among the deaths was that of a 22-year-old apprentice undertaker at a Lima funeral home, who, seeking relief from the heat, connected a small six-volt automobile fan to the 110-volt system in the funeral home.
“The fan attained such high speed that the four blades flew off, one of them striking him in the chest and another severing an artery in his leg,” The Lima News reported.
The heat returned in July 1936.
“Searing heat from the drought-stricken west struck Lima with full force Thursday after the mercury had been sent mounting to 105½ degrees Wednesday for the summer’s record,” The Lima News wrote July 9, 1936. The heat wave lasted more than a week.
According to The Lima News, the heat buckled highway pavement, sent water consumption soaring, was blamed for several drownings and the deaths of two golfers, and, apparently, forced a pregnant cat 10 feet up a tree in Elida, where it gave birth and nurtured a litter of kittens up in the shady canopy.
Relief, however, was on the way. More and more restaurants and theaters were getting air conditioning, while home air conditioners were becoming more affordable, all of which Lima News reporter Gray Knisely, with tongue in cheek, complained about.
“Since the advent of air conditioning there are probably more scientific ways of catching cold than ever before,” Knisely wrote July 18, 1937. “From bars to boudoirs, everything is ‘20 degrees cooler.’ It’s a menace to society.”
In addition, thanks to the Works Progress Administration, public swimming pools were being planned or built throughout the area. The Lima News, in an editorial written during the July 1936 heat wave outlined the need for more swimming pools.
“Drownings, heat prostrations and fatal auto crashes – all these go hand in hand with the excessive heat that has caused untold suffering for a week in Lima,” the newspaper wrote.
SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
LEARN MORE
See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
Reach Greg Hoersten at [email protected].
