Growing up, my parents never had enough money to upgrade our heating and cooling systems. There are six of us kids, so my parents had to save wherever possible in order to keep a roof over our heads. This meant lots of shared toys and clothes and less dining out. This also meant that we did not have the luxury of central cooling. We had to deal with alternatives to keep cool in the summertime. We had several fans throughout the first floor of our family home to keep us cool during the day. This kept us pretty comfortable during the days, but didn’t solve the problem of nighttime. My dad, then, installed one window air conditioning unit in my bedroom to keep us cool at night. Believe it or not, this small unit kept all three bedrooms cool. My dad installed the window cooling unit in my bedroom because it is at the front of the house. Then, he would put up a curtain at the top of the stairs to direct the air straight through the hallway instead of allowing it to escape down the stairs. We would keep all the bedroom doors open. Somehow, this allowed the cool air to travel from my bedroom, down the straight hallway, and into the other two bedrooms. I never really understood how this worked, but it would keep us all cool at night, despite the rising temperatures outside. I have to give my dad a lot of credit for finding money saving alternatives to keep us cool during the scorching summer seasons.