This winter, with all its snow, ice and frigid temperatures, has been compared with winters out of the past. If I heard it once, I heard it a dozen times - "remember the winters we had when we were kids?"

Truthfully, I think this winter is worse than any when I was a kid. It's probably that I'm older, and shoveling snow is a lot tougher when you're on the south side of 60, rather than in our younger days when we were on the north side of 20.

But it's fun to reminisce. So much fun that I find myself spending more and more time doing it. And apparently TIMES NEWS readers do also.

The following list arrived this week from a reader, and I want to share it with those readers who remember. If you're under 40, it probably won't stir up any memories, but if you're a pre-baby boomer, this should light up your brain cells.

See what you can remember.

Do you remember when -


When a can of beer couldn't be opened with a zip top. You needed a church key to dispense the brew.

It took three minutes for the TV to warm up?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?







Lying on your back in the grass with your friends... and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like a... '?







Also, do you remember?

Candy cigarettes...


Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles...

Coffee shops with Table Side Jukeboxes...

Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum...

Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers...

Newsreels before the movie...

Telephone numbers with a word prefix... Party lines...


Hi-Fi's & 45 RPM records...

78 RPM records...

Green Stamps...

Mimeograph paper...

The Fort Apache Play Set...

Do You Remember a Time When Decisions were made by going...'eeny-meeny-miney-moe'?


'Race issue' meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?


Having a Weapon in School meant being caught with a Slingshot?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?



The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?