Driving a long distance in hot weather without AC?!

I was wondering how we used to travel without ac. Seems like I remember always having a cooler of pop(no Gatorade, bottled water, etc. back then)and a jug of ice water or ice tea. I was just thinking today of posting if anyone had any opinions or suggestions on the mesh or beaded seat pads, to avoid the dreaded vinyl seat sweats. I used to have a swamp cooler that sat on the seat, you filled it with ice water, tried it once in my Duster but evaporative cooling doesn't work here (high humidity). Looked for it a while back to put in the Dart just as a prop but couldn't find it.