I suppose some people had central cooling systems 30 years ago however not my family, all of us never had central air conditioning… Instead, the two of us had one window cooling system set up in the residing room.
It would only be turned on if it was close to a hundred degrees outside and, if it was still absolutely overheated at night, the two of us would all get our sleeping bags & the two of us would sleep in the middle of the residing room floor to stay cool, the cooling system was not powerful enough to cool all of the kitchens. It could only cool the residing room & maybe, occasionally the kitchen. In the Summer the cooling system would stay on nonstop for weeks at a time. This would cause it to literally freeze up. The back of the cooling system would be full of frost & ice & my dad would go outside & hose it off with the garden hose & the two of us would turn off the cooling system for a few hours. I have no system if that was normal or not however it was normal for my family. All of us have the same window air conditioning component for a wonderful 20 years. my mom was also careful about cooking in the Summer because she did not want to heat up the house. All of us would eat a lot of salads & sandwiches in the summertime. It wasn’t until I grew up, got married, & got a house of my own that I got central air conditioning & felt the joys of having cool, comfortable air whenever & wherever I wanted in the house, and my central cooling system never freezes up either & I can use the oven without worry too.