I'm a native Texan, and have fondly listened to my mother talk about surviving the Texas heat prior to air conditioning. They did all housework in the morning, and then they'd all gather in front of a fan and drink iced tea in the afternoon. Kids took lots of baths in the afternoons or played in kiddie pools.

I spent a miserably hot summer in East Texas in an un-air conditioned apartment during college. We spent the afternoons in whatever industrial air conditioning we could find: student union, library, church youth house, mall, whatever worked. We were quite creative about it. At night, I would jump in the shower in a t shirt just prior to going to bed, go to bed wet, and let evaporation do its stuff while I went to sleep.