Traveling in comfort - Stories for my grandchildren

The other evening I was sitting in one of those restaurants with all the old antiques and assorted junk up on the walls and hanging from the rafters. You know the kind of place. Across from our table was a canvas bag on display, and I realized that I knew what that bag was for, and in fact, growing up, my family utilized several such bags for their intended purpose. It was a canvas water bag (much older and more faded than these in this picture).

The bags are indeed made of a heavy canvas and they are intended to transport water. You fill them up. hang them on the car bumper (well, that may be a problem today) or from a tree at your campsite where it can catch the breeze; water wicks through the canvas and evaporates, cooling the bag and its contents. Simple and elegant, and judging from the photo I found, you can still purchase them!

My family made a trip to southern California in the early 1950's to meet my brother, who was returning to the States after a tour of duty in the Navy. We caravaned the family car and my brother's car, with my sister-in-law Jo, who was rejoining her husband in California after his overseas tour. We hung at least one - perhaps more - canvas water bags on the exterior of the car to help us journey across New Mexico, Arizona and the arid portions of southern California. But that was not our only creature comfort.

This is a picture of an evaporative air conditioner for an automobile. Right. A swamp cooler for a car. We had one of those devices (I can't remember which car) and it operated on a very simple principle. The forward motion of the car caused air to be scooped up by the front opening, passing over porous water-soaked pads, bringing about evaporation, which cooled air that was then directed into the interior of the car. Pretty neat.

But the best part was re-soaking the pads, which were arranged around a cylindrical cage, which rotated through a shallow tray of water in the bottom of the unit. You just reached up and pulled a cord which rotated the cage and reloaded the pads with water. The best part was that the excess water was blown off the pads and into the car, both refreshing the occupants with a spray of cool water, and eliminating the need for a shower when you stopped that evening! A wonderful device!

In the restaurant, I was excitedly reciting my recollections of these wonderful old inventions, when Barb gently reminded me that if I were not careful, they might want to hang another old antique on the wall.