I was talking to someone the other day and we got to talking about how much things have changed over the last fifty years. I remembered my dad having an old coal furnace in the basement. Whenever a big storm went through and we lost power, we never had to worry about going without heat, because of that furnace. We didn’t have air conditioning, which would make my own kids go crazy. I think how upset my daughter gets if she doesn’t have the perfect amount of air conditioning in her bedroom, while she relaxes and plays her video games, or listens to her songs. We didn’t have video games, so we were constantly outside anyway. Coming into a cooler house, even if it wasn’t a perfect seventy-two, was always a treat. A woman was listening to our conversation, and she said that she didn’t mean to interrupt, but she began to get upset with me. She said that fifty years ago, they had air conditioning, and they had an oil furnace. She told us that we had no idea what we were talking about, and I should quit acting like I was my father. I smiled, and told her that I lived in coal country, and actually few people had oil or gas furnaces. We couldn’t afford to have the luxury of air conditioning. I told her that my situation and hers were very different. I was raised in the country, and she was obviously raised in the city. Her father owned a business, which she was quick to tell us, and my father was a laborer. She threw her hands up in the air, and cursed, then walked away.