I was raised in the midwest.
My parents went through a depression and they did not have any a/c.
I then grew up with no a/c. For heating, we had a coal-fired heater. I remember as a little boy watching the large dump truck unload a ton of coal into our basement. He would dump it into the coal chute. I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. My mother hated that dust would fly around in the home for days afterward. But, with the new coal, the house would be quite toasty. My first encounter with a central A/C idea came as a teenager at a friend’s house. The AC device fired up while I was resting underneath a ceiling duct. The noise was one that I had never heard before. The sound made me jump and I can still see the smirk on my friend’s faces. They were laughing at my ignorance of new modern conveniences. My parents finally did convert to electric heating style. Then let me have a few window A/C units in selected rooms. Even with the a/c, it was still uncomfortable while in the hot summers. I eventually moved to a warmer climate in the south and bought my first central HVAC device. It was no longer a convenience but a necessity with the humid midwestern July-like weather for most of the year. Honestly, I did not know too much about Heating plus A/C systems. After using the central HVAC for a few months though, I loved it. I know I would never go without proper heating and air ever again.