I needed air conditioning and it was November.
My best friend and I wanted to go south for Thanksgiving.
Her grandparents lived in the Bayou and she hadn’t visited in over five years.
It sounded like a nice way to get away from the snow and cold of the north, and the dry itchy skin of the furnace running constantly. I was happy to go along with her. When we got off the plane, I wished I had carried some lighter weight clothing with me. I knew I wouldn’t need winter clothing, but I thought I would at least need a sweater. Never did I think I would be needing air conditioning at the end of November. Her grandparents had the windows open and said how nice it was to finally have cooler weather. They talked about how they enjoyed it when it got cool enough to not need to worry about air conditioning. It seemed their worry of air conditioning wasn’t much, as it was. They ate most of their meals outside beneath the stars and the moon. There was a huge pavilion and I thought there had to be at least one hundred people sharing Thanksgiving that night. I was uncomfortable in my high necked sweater and I was sure my friend noticed, but it was her grandmother who led me into the house. She told me how she had such a hard time getting used to the heat and humidity when she moved south. As much as she loved the winter and snow, she now preferred the weather here. She gave me a cooler shirt to wear and we walked outside carrying more food for the family.