SNEAKERS--or as we called
them back then, tennis
shoes--weren't a year-round thing in my house growing up.

Like the white bucks and belts on men or the white patent leather on women, tennis shoes were reserved for the warmer months. Clunky leather shoes were what took you through the cold of winter.

This made the arrival of tennis-shoe season, which started in May with the purchase of a new pair, an exciting time, marking the return of warmth and the kid fun that came with it.

Things are different today, with sneakers the year-round shoe of choice for many kids. And it's not unusual to see flip-flops and open-backed clogs on some kids all winter.

It's strange the things that stick with you through the years; I still have vivid memories of strapping on a new pair of P.F. Flyers sneakers and running wildly about our front yard, as if to welcome back nice weather.

It was a spring-fling kind of thing, a celebration of the soul to mark the return of warmth, comfort and the wonders of kid-friendly things like swimming pools and fishing poles.

Watching kids walking into school buildings this past wonderfully warm, balmy week in just T-shirts and shorts, I thought back to those tennis-shoe celebrations and pondered the healing power of a few warm days.

We haven't had such a tough winter, aside from the Christmas cold snap.

But who among us wasn't bouncing like a school boy when temperatures topped 70 last week?

Windows were thrown wide open, shorts pulled out of bottom drawers and cars pulled up by the water faucets to have road salt washed away.

At our house, one child was tasked with washing and waxing a car on Monday when he was out of school. It was to repay cash advanced to buy Christmas presents.

Initially seen simply as work, he got into the spirit, donning a bathing suit and sunglasses and cranking up the car stereo to make a chore into a sun-drenched celebration.

"It was actually kind of fun," he said later, probably surprising even himself.