Possibility?

I read in yesterday's newspaper that the Illinois High School Association, which governs Illinois high school sports has developed a rather complex formula to determine when the weather conditions are 'too hot/ humid' to continue a sport competition. Obviously this would only be a concern in the late spring or early fall when temperature can be rather uncomfortable. I would not debate the wisdom of this administrative decision. Certainly. I would line up with those who are concerned with the health and safety of athletic participants.

I would wonder, however about the life-style changes that may have impacted our abilities to withstand these oppressive heat related conditions. Hear me out. My generation of youth participants rarely had air conditioned homes. I recall mom making sleeping pallets near the screen door on those hot East St. Louis nights. Of course, we seldom locked our doors in 1951. I also remember one of our rooms had a window fan. Back in the day most neighbor's sat outside during summer months in order to catch a cool late night breeze before retiring. The neighborhood kids played street games on hot summer nights until we heard the 9:00 PM whistle, which was our cue to get our tails home.

Actually, Kids from that era played outside all day and sweating seemed to be a physiological mechanism to combat heat. From 1950 until 1953, I recall that my youth little league baseball uniforms were wool...that's correct...WOOL. Wow, that wool really caused itching on those parched summer fields' of dreams with an unrelenting burning sun and 90+ temperatures. One thing that helped combat the wool uniforms was a t-shirt and cotton light weight pajama bottoms worn under the baseball suit.

Do you think there was a possibility that the living conditions in those years produced better heat-resistant-bodies than we find with youngsters today?