The Indians used to say that when the days grew longer the winter would get tougher and people stayed inside to think about things yet to come, like when the sun melted the white stuff and we could enjoy the prospects of summer again.

If you’re of a certain age with plenty of Februaries to have memories to think about, you might find yourself taking a step back, and strolling with me – closing your eyes and going back before the internet, before semi-autoconductors and using crack, before Super Nintendo – waaaaay back…

Just doing nothing sitting on a curb on a warm summer day, or playing games like hide & seek, Simon says, Red Light-Green Light, proudly owning a metal lunch box that contained a thermos bottle with real chocolate milk – or going home for a quick lunch, buying a dessert treat, penny candy, playing hopscotch… roller skates with keys, jacks, hula hoops while chewing sunflower seeds, wearing wax lips and fake mustaches and saddle shoes.

Remember the fun in running fully dressed through sprinklers…belonging to a Mickey Mouse Club, and for fun on Saturday mornings watching Bullwinkle and Kookla, Fran & Ollie (all in black and white of course).

Remember when around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed miles away.

For fun: climbing trees, making forts, having backyard shows for a penny admission, putting up lemonade stands, playing cops and robbers. cowboys and Indians, staring at clouds for identifiable shapes, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, eating ribbon candy and angel hair, sucking colored sugar water out of little wax images.

And on Christmas Eve, dashing up to bed, unable to sleep, waiting for you-know-who to come down the chimney to silently fulfill all the dreams of your life – while hoping there were a few unpleasant secrets Santa didn’t know about. Then relief when morning came and you dove under the Christmas tree to open your gifts and realized that even if Santa knew everything, he was a pretty good fellow after all.

Summers – running to the movie theatre on weekends for a 10-cent Saturday matinee (with a serial thriller included) and an extra penny for a sucker or wax baby. Remember that?

There’s the smell of flour and water paste in school, and, oh, what about the girl who used to dot her “I’s” with hearts? Sock Hops? The agony of finding a date for the big annual ball?

And those ugly gym uniforms the girls had to wear!

Oh, remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up?

And nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school, with cookies fresh from the over to snack on before the evening meal? And when your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces? And all the men teachers wore neckties, some with button-down sweaters, and the women had their hair done and wore high heels?

The worst thing you could do in school was smoke in the bathroom, or flunk a test or get caught chewing gum.

That was a time when a ’57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car – to cruise, peel out, lay rubber on the road… And no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked.

Remember when little bottles and medicinal plastic containers from the store came without finger nail destructing safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison someone.

And don’t you wish with all our progress you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace?

How about when a student being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the kid at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn’t because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. – our parents and grandparents were a bigger threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threats.

There’s so much more, but you get the idea.

and if you like, you can send this to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, the Hardy boys, Laurel and Hardy, the Lone Ranger – Roy and Dale and Trigger, Howdy Doody, the Shadow Knows – as well as the sound of a real hand powered grass mower on Saturday mornings – and eating Kool-Aid straight from the package. They will enjoy the memories just as much as you – on a cold February morning, or, for that matter, any morning.

So c’mon with me, take a step back, take a stroll with me, forget the winter weather, the irritating sloppy TV and radio voices in today’s Q&A’s, the ubiquitous, endless (non) commercials, close your eyes and go back before the Internet, before semi-automatic…

And tell the kids how wonderful – and simple – it was then!