FYI; How to tell if you're ancient.(VARIETY)

How to tell if you're ancient ... or maybe just terminally middle-aged. If you recognize even one of the following items you are about as old as the pyramids. We found these on a list floating around on the Internet and added a few - not that we remember them ourselves.

- Candy cigarettes. (Made you look cool.)

- Phone numbers with a word prefix. (You never forgot CApitol 9-9126).

- Coke machines that dispensed bottles. (Bottles were chipped, heavy and kept the soda cold.)

- Table-side jukeboxes. (The tunes hadn't been changed in decades.)

- Flash bulbs. (You ejected them after use. They landed on the carpet and you burned your fingers picking them up.)

- Full-sized spare tires. (Bald, yes, but full-sized.)

- Roller skates that clamped to your shoes. (Never worked. What were they thinking?)

- Three TV stations, no more. (Plus the local public-TV outlet and the low-wattage station with the midday movies.)

- Cars with analog clocks. (They quit working by the time the car was a year old.)

- Dave Matheny

Pointers for parents

Making Halloween cards with children is fun for them, and the cards are special for recipients. Use orange or black paper. For the cover, make a ghost by tracing your child's hand: The fingers are the hem of the ghost's costume. At the wrist position, make a circle for the ghost's head. The message inside is "boo." Have your child make three circles. Go back to the first circle and add a straight line. Even a baby can make this card with help from mom or dad.

- Christine Maestri is a Twin Cities-area teacher and parent. Her parenting tips appear here every Sunday.

Heads up

Good grief

A workshop Thursday will focus on matters of loss and grief that parents of disabled children may face, and will offer help in working through stages of grief. "Good Grief: Why Do I Feel So Sad? Angry? Scared?" is offered by Arc Hennepin County, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens. The organization will hold five other workshops in November that address the needs of people with mental retardation and their families.

- When: 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.

- Where: St. David's Child Development and Family Services, 3395 Plymouth Rd., Minnetonka.

- Admission: Free.

- Call: 952-920-0855.

- Peg Meier

Coming up in Variety

Thursday

We compare Target, Wal-Mart and Kmart. Which has the the cheapest prices, and by how much?

Comments

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