Hi folks. Hope you're surviving the winter well. For us seniors, it is hard to believe that there are only four weeks of winter left. The older you get, the faster the years go by.

Lately I've been thinking back to the days of World War II. Hard as it is to believe, that war ended 63 years ago. Where on earth did the time go?

Life in Auburn, and everywhere else must have been very different during the war years. There were no young men around as we were all in the military. The only ones who weren't were those who had a disability which made them unsuitable for military duty. The government classified them as 4F.

I was in the service for three years and only came home for two short furloughs. I really didn't get the feel of what Auburn was like during the war, as I spent the few days on leave with the family. I did learn, though, that there was rationing of food items and that nylons could no longer be bought.

Since there were no young men around, the girls had no one to date. My wife tells me that a lot of their free time was spent going to the movies.

However, occasionally personnel from the Sampson Naval Base would be seen in the towns in the Finger Lakes area. Undoubtedly, some would get to meet girls and do some socializing with them.

One thing that I learned when I returned home after the war was that there were Italian prisoners of war working at the Seneca Army Depot during the war. These prisoners were allowed to go to town when they had free time. A lot of people complained about granting the prisoners this privilege while our own boys were off fighting the war. Because of these complaints, the practice was soon stopped.

Now on to historic Auburn again. In my last column, I stated that Auburn was one of the most historic cities in the state but that, unfortunately, many of its historic buildings had been demolished. While doing a little research lately, I've learned that more historic buildings have been destroyed than I could have imagined. I realize, of course, that it would not have been practical to spare all buildings of historic interest but to go about destroying them in wholesale fashion was unconscionable.

However, as I stated in my last column, some buildings of considerable historic interest have been retained, thankfully. Those that I commented on are the historic post office, the Cayuga Museum, the Seymour Library, the County Court House and the Seward House.

I would now like to mention a few more. Auburn has several historic churches, one of which is St. Mary's Church on Clark Street. This imposing structure was completed and dedicated in 1877. The bells of St. Mary's were installed in 1926 and I well remember when they were. Our family lived on Hulbert Street at the time, a short block from St. Mary's. Many people looked up at the church tower when the bells were being installed. I did so also, even though I was just a young boy and got quite a thrill out of hearing the bells ring for the first time.

Another local historic treasure is the Willard Chapel, which, with the attached Welch Memorial Building, is all that remains of the original buildings of the Auburn Theological Seminary. The interior of the chapel was designed and hand-crafted by the famous Tiffany Glass and Decorating Co. of New York and is the only original and complete Tiffany chapel known to exist. It is listed on both that State and National Registers of Historic Landmarks.

When I returned from the war, I learned that Army Specialized Training Program students from Syracuse University had been housed in the seminary dormitory.

Under the program, the Army sent students to many colleges and universities. I applied for the program when I was in the Army Air Corps and was accepted and sent to Ball State College in Muncie, Ind.

After I had completed two terms at Ball State, the Army decided that it needed front line troops more than it needed college boys, so it shut down the program. However, those of us in the program were not returned to our original Army units. There were several hundred of us at Ball State and we were all sent to Camp Swift, Texas to join the 102nd Infantry Division. Six months later, we were on our way to Europe to fight Hitler's army.

Continuing with historic Auburn, the Harriet Tubman site on South Street has a couple of buildings of historical significance. There is the brick home where Harriet Tubman lived with her second husband, Nelson Davis. There is also the Home for the Aged, a wooden building that Tubman established in 1903 and where she spent the last few years of her life. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975 and is now a historic museum open for tours.

Guess I've rambled on enough. I'll be back with you at the beginning of spring.

Carmelo Signorelli is an Auburn resident who enjoys reminiscing about the good ol' days