Is that a human being peering out through the window?

[Yes. - Dave]

A staple of mine walking to and from grade school in the winters. By high school I was to suave and cool to wear them. As the war years progressed those boots may or may not have been salvaged for the war effort.

Once Upon A Time In America

Liquor
Beer
Tobacco
Boy Scouts

It's ironic, at least to modern eyes, that a pool hall advertising liquor, beer, and tobacco in its window also has a sign promoting the Boy Scouts. I think these five young men are a scout troop. I wonder if their scoutmaster owns the pool hall?

Time travel is real. Don't believe me? Just ask our "bookend" boys: Justin Bieber and Napoléon Bonaparte.

I have a strong childhood memory of the smell of wool coats and mittens drying on the radiator in the winter.

Here I am at age two in Toronto with my father in 1948. I am wearing a pair of metal buckle winter boots, also known as galoshes. They were designed to wear over regular shoes, so they are quite large. There is just a bit of ice visible here in suburban Mimico, right on Lake Ontario. If there was a sleet storm the buckles would freeze shut until you could get to a warm place.

Lots of wool clothing and boots here. Is that a "Stormy Kromer" hat on the guy on the left? I am guessing this photo was taken later in the day about this time of year.

[Like the caption says, it's February. - Dave]

"Trouble, oh we got trouble
Right here in River City!
With a capital "T"
That rhymes with "P"
And that stands for Pool
That stands for pool.
We've surely got trouble!
Right here in River City
Right here!
Gotta figure out a way
To keep the young ones moral after school!"

Meredith Willson, The Music Man (1957)

Hard to tell ages, but some might be otherwise occupied by 1945.

has the obligatory "4 buckler" winter boots and probably needed them in South Dakota in February.