Chores growing up – air vents

Sometimes when I go online I get very depressed about kids these days. I know that’s an old, crotchety human thing to say. However, it really does seem like this generation is growing up with such strange expectations and responsibilities. Nowadays, children are extremely socially active when it comes to major global issues. However, they have no idea what it means to perform a basic hard-working task or to keep up with rudimentary chores around the house. This is hard for me to understand, because I grew up in a household where kids were expected to pull their weight. One of my least favorite chores was taking care of the heating, cooling, and air quality control system. We had a large centralized furnace and air conditioning setup which ran on a basic dial thermostat like you see in the movies. Because we had one set of air handling equipment providing all of our indoor air temperature and air quality control for the entire house, we relied on an extensive air duct system hidden behind our walls. Of course, we needed to take care of the indoor air handling devices to keep them operating properly. My parents called out professional heating and cooling technicians for the diagnostics and repairs necessary for our air conditioner and furnace. However, they wanted their kids to take care of the smaller heating and cooling chores. This is why I got stuck with the job of replacing the air filter for our HVAC devices every month. I also had to clean the air vents and air ducts as a small child. Because I was the tiniest kid in the family, I actually had to crawl through the grimy ductwork to accomplish this goal. Kids these days have no idea.

Commercial air conditioning