hell, you don’t even have to go back to 1972. I remember in my area growing up (90’s), breaking 100 was something that would maybe happen one or two days out of a whole summer, and it was a whole thing - treated in the same way you might treat a really bad storm in winter.
This summer half of every week has been above 100 since July - our “breaks” from the heat are like mid-90’s.
I wonder how bad it’s going to have to get before everyone who isn’t literally mentally ill will have to admit that this isn’t normal