Does anyone know if people actually did that back then, in the days before cheap AC? I find that pretty incredible! I can't imagine anyone doing anything like that now, but hundreds of people sitting out and sleeping under the stars, wow?
Any old-timers around? Or anyone with access to old-timers?
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
I grew up in Baltimore in the '60's/'70's. My mother told stories of taking a pillow and blanket down to Druid Hill Park to escape the night summer heat. There would be a hundred or so people sleeping on the lawn. If you lived in an apartment building a mattress on the fire escape was also a popular form of air conditioned sleeping.
Most of the flavor in this film is based on Levinson's memories and that of his family.
Wow! That's practically psychotic! I couldn't even imagine doing that today. The fire escape, sure; I think they did that in "Rear Window" didn't they? But sleeping out on the grass with 100 strangers? Woof. Thanks for the info.
I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.
>>If you lived in an apartment building a mattress on the fire escape was also a popular form of air conditioned sleeping.<<
You can see this in the Alfred Hitchcock movie with Jimmy Stewart, "Rear Window." It was made in the early 1950's and was contemporary for it's time. There was a funny bit where the husband and wife, sleeping outside on the fire escape, were caught in an unexpected summer shower.
Flanagan
Not just a fire escape...people would also sleep on the roof of apartment buildings to escape the stuffy confines of the the apartment.
shareI thought that they were sleeping outdoors because it was the 4th of July and they were going to watch the fireworks. I didn't know people did that on a regular basis during the summer back then. But it makes sense, especially if you lived in a stuffy apartment building with no ac.
(formerly slimcity321)
THE RAP CRITIC:
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They used to do this in Chicago by Lake Michigan, too. And people didn't think of keeping their doors locked all the time, etc. We live in a completely different world.
shareI live near Boston and as recently as the 1970's people would go the Lynn beach to sleep on hot summer nights. There are so many images in this movie that wake up memories like that.
shareMy mother tells of sleeping in Patterson Park on hot summer nights in the 1930's.
"Sod off, Baldrick"
We never slept in Druid Hill Park (where they slept in the movie) but as a small kid, my parents would take my sister and I to the park for a picnic and to watch the fireworks - I was probably about 8 in the early 50s and do remember some of this.
PS I am not an "old timer" - I am 65 and still jog 20 miles weekly!
Damn some of you goofs need to do research...there were plenty of people in several different cities that would go to the "cool" park to escape the heat...think about it..no air conditioning, crowded tenaments,apartments,rooming houses etc...The park offered a wide open spot for the breeze to flow, the cool grass, if it had a lake the cool water, and the breeze blowing off that...yeah, sleeping next to hundreds of strangers would be weird, but it beats the heat.
shareSOUTH PHILLY, LEAGUE ISLAND. and some people still do.
shareIt makes sense, and it was a totally different time then.
But it wouldn't be for me, because I'd get eaten alive by mosquitoes!
Late to the party....but when I first moved to the DC area in the late 60s, sleeping out was very common. The first apartment I had did not have A/C, but did have a screened in sleeping porch, which was also very common. If you watch the opening scene in "Steel Magnolias" you will note the screened in upper porches on the old houses.
share