Air Conditioning
Another town, another alley.
The thing that caught my eye here was that air conditioner and the way it broke up the rhythm of the arched, boarded doors and windows.
Which reminded me of my childhood home. It was cooled by one of these kinds of units, which work by the cooling effects of air blowing across water. We called them evaporative coolers, or evap coolers; in New Mexico they are known as swamp coolers, for reasons that escape me since the state is relatively swamp-free and anyway, these things don’t work if it’s humid outside. (I’ll let Wikipedia explain it in a lot more detail.)
When these coolers first come on, for just a minute the air smells like the first drops of a rain shower. I remember that smell, and the white-noise effect of the fan, and the way my mom always opened the window in the front bedroom just a little bit to draw the cooled air through, and how I could sit on the porch and feel that air blowing through the window screens.
Amherst, Texas
photographed 5.24.2013
Posted on June 15, 2013, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, amherst, amherst texas, architecture, black and white photography, downtown, melinda green harvey, one day one image, photo a day, photography, texas. Bookmark the permalink. 10 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
I really like this shot for so many reasons.
The white openings look, at first glance, like holes into a brightness. The wire’s shadow leading to them is perfect.
The cooler of course is nicely placed, unless you are a heritage buff. This one is placed, I am pretty sure, to best spot passing swamps.
I like that bit of cloth hanging over the edge of the building. It looks like a towel, carelessly draped on a chair next to the pool. Do you suppose there is a pool on the roof? Or perhaps a swamp?
I particularly like it that the long gone and now unnamed cafe owner knew how to use a possessive apostrophe. I would have eaten at that cafe, just for that reason.
And your words are cooling and soothing, gently prepossessing.
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First, I think “holes into a brightness” is very poetic. I liked the shadow, as it leads us right to the correctly-punctuated cafe. I would have gone there, too, for the very same reasons. (I have a post queued up where I discuss my Inner Grammarian.)
While I think that is is actually a piece of twisted metal (winds can be brutal out here) from the roof, it is a LOT more amusing to thing that there’s a pool on the roof. This place is just a half-block from Busty’s so maybe what was on the roof was some sort of lookout to catch the comings-and-goings over there.
Another thing I remember about the cooled air wafting across the front porch is that the neighbor’s cat would spend his summer afternoons sleeping on a chair on the porch so he, too, could catch some cool air.
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It would only need to be 1/10th of a degree cooler, and the cat would exploit it. I think that cats would be a useful marketing tool for purveyors of HVAC systems.
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I agree – cats can always find the most comfortable temperature. Our cat Rocky was famous for sleeping on the floor of the living room in the winter, taking advantage of the low sun angle. He was always in the sunlight, though no one ever saw him move to keep up with it. It was a mystery.
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Wow!
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Thanks – I am glad you like it!
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There’s a curved, dark line at the bottom half of the photo that draws you into the building. It’s a clever device to get the eye to the point of interest. This is really well done. Plus, I learned more about “swamp coolers”. That phrase is going to enter my vocabulary the same way that “Busty’s Body Shop” did.
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You can say, “Yep – we was over to Busty’s Body Shop the day that swamp cooler tumped over onto Busty’s head. Didn’t hurt Busty, but it busted up the swamp cooler pretty good.”
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Love the shadow of the power line as it leads us in, pal-very sophisticated.
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Ooh! “Sophisticated” you say? I don’t get that a lot. Or, you know, ever.
Thanks – as with almost all my shots, I was lucky/happy to find it.
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