It’s No Joke!

As I thank God for air conditioning during this north Texas heat wave (and pray for rain), when I grew up in East Texas, we survived without AC. We had fans, of course, but not much use against the heat and humidity of East Texas. Our survival secret was iced tea—real iced tea brewed from tea leaves and sugar-sweetened in the pan while still hot. My grandmother had an aluminum pitcher in her refrigerator that was always filled with ice tea. I remember the condensation glistening on it as she poured tea over ice cubes in our glasses. Back then, the first action taken when you had a visitor was to offer them a cool glass of iced tea. Texans may be kidded about their iced tea, but it’s no joke. That’s how we survived!