I n the stodgiest possible fashion, I find myself often telling others I didn’t have bedroom air conditioning “in my day,” as though this said “day” was somewhere around the 1890s rather than 1990s.

In fact, my parents chose not to have air conditioning anywhere in the house when I was a child, and so it was something I never missed in life.

We bore the sweltering nights dependent on nature’s original, organic A/C – open windows – in hopes that an ocean breeze might waft moments of blissful relief our way at the exact right angle, soothing to us as aloe to a sunburn.

Air conditioning wasn’t at the forefront of my mind, just as it wouldn’t have been at the forefront of electrical cost-savings for my parents anyway.

And I’ve grown totally accustomed to it, a completely devout believer that a hot day’s more comfortable than a cold one, more appreciated because our northeastern climate gives us more than our fair share of brutal cold during a larger chunk of the year.

I’m not superstitious, except that I do believe if people complain too much about the heat during summer’s fleeting months, some proverbial groundhog will spot its shadow while sunbathing and curse us with six months of obnoxiously frigid winter ahead, rendering us no choice but to eventually plunk hundreds on hefty heat bills while longing to get those summer days back.

But I get it. Warmth is one thing, intense heat’s another. Oh, the humidity!

Everyone’s got his or her own Goldilocks-style comfortability level that determines what temperature’s really ‘just right’. Some are more comfortable on the warmer side; some think a chiller temp is what’s cool.

But what to do about a house divided over temperature agreement?

How does one keep control when there’s no agreeing on climate control?

Is compromising one’s comfort really all that Fahrenheit?

And so enters the great A/C debate.

When the heat is on, are you for Team Fresh Air or do you tune into A/C?

It’s a controversial debate perhaps as divisive as mustard vs. ketchup on pork pies in southern Maine’s French Canadian community (Mustard wins, by the way.)

And while my husband and I fortunately see eye to eye when it comes to pork pie, triple H weather makes him all for A/C, whereas I’m more a fan of the fan.

I love open windows, but when it comes to A/C, I hardly have an open mind.

Air conditioning makes me feel like I’m back in the beverage cooler of a store where I worked throughout high school, stocking dairy gallons, putting every Shipyard six-pack in its place as my teeth chattered. I wore insulated gloves for the occasion, but who wants to don winter gear inside one’s home sweet home?

So my husband and I compromise. We have to. On warm nights, we rely on the easy-peasy breeze or the coolness of our fan. On humid nights that border on discomfort, we let the air conditioner do its thing and fill our room with its cool crispness.

During a recent, hazy and humid Friday evening, our family unanimously voted down our original plan to take our bikes outdoors for a spin. Instead, we stayed in.

We ordered takeout thai food and sushi, gathered up the kiddos and pup in our bedroom, and cranked on the A/C as we watched Disney and drank cool lemonade with our noodles.

We all agreed to put our bikes on the back burner so we wouldn’t burn our backs riding in the blazing heat, and our evening that took place made for a cool memory, in more ways than one.

The road to easy A/C access in the U.S. is an interesting one, and whether or not you are pro-air conditioning, here is some interesting back story on the innovation that perhaps we can all appreciate.

According to The Air Conditioning Company website www.airconco.com, Willis Haviland Carrier is considered the father of A/C. In 1902, he figured out how temperature, humidity, dew point and pressure all connected and ran with it. By 1906, he patented his first device for treating air, formed his company in 1915, and the rest is pretty cool history.

By 1939, cars featuring A/C began rolling out, and by 1953, more than 1 million home units had been sold in the U.S.

In 1997, restrictions on environmentally harmful refrigerants were put in place, thus making air conditioning much more environmentally friendly.

According to the website, air conditioning has also made a larger impact on our lives and culture than we may think:

• Without A/C, Vegas wouldn’t be Vegas. The fast growth of hotter states such as Texas, Nevada and Florida since the 1940s wouldn’t have been possible without air conditioning, and America’s economic power would remain mostly in the Northern states.

• The reason movie-makers traditionally wait until summer to release their big blockbusters is because air-conditioned theaters draw in larger crowds who want to beat the heat.

• Without cool, controlled environments made possible by air conditioning, great advances in medicine we take for granted today that cure certain illnesses and prolong life expectancy would not be possible.

• Before air conditioning, industries and the government took long summer vacations just like school because the heat was unbearable.

So there you have it.

No one can doubt the impact A/C has made in our country’s history this past century, regardless of whether you enjoy having the chilly unit in your own home or prefer cool breezes and open windows.

To air condition or to not air condition will likely be a great debate for years to come.

So will mustard vs. ketchup on Christmas pork pies.

But that’s one my husband, children and I will never need to debate about.

— Michelle Cote is the art director of the Journal Tribune and a nationally-syndicated columnist. She enjoys cooking, baking, and living room danceoffs with her husband, two boys and a dog. She can be contacted at mcote@journaltribune.com.