A Look Back: Feb. 15

50 Years Ago

■Snow, which had been the missing ingredient two weeks ago, comes to the fore as activities for the Northampton Winter Festival accelerate this week. Today the snow sculpture judging committee will view the 12 snow sculptures in the downtown area of the city to pick out the best ones. The lions, bears, giraffes, dinosaurs, and the rest are on the Smith College campus.

■The first in a series of stores to be opened at the Pot Pourri Shopping Center on King Street celebrated its opening today. Allen’s Alley is the first store to open at Pot Pourri, currently being completed according to Stanley Shermeta, president of the family-owned shopping center.

25 Years Ago

■Pride & Joy, a downtown store that caters to the gay community, is taking advantage of the controversy over the Tinky Winky doll. The dolls were selling like hotcakes following news reports this week that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had published an article in the National Liberty Journal headlined: “Parents Alert: Tinky Winky Comes Out of the Closet.”

■A break-in more than a month ago at the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce continues to sidetrack the business group’s affairs. The break-in at the Chamber headquarters, which came over the Christmas holiday weekend, cost the group five computers, two printers, a fax machine, a postage machine, a postage meter and petty cash.

10 Years Ago

■Martha J. Cohen has been tapped as the new director of the Belding Memorial Library in Ashfield. Cohen, of Southampton, grew up in Northampton and has lived in Seattle for the past 20 years, where she ran the reference library and the teen library for the King County Library System.

■Residents and visitors to Northampton without a vehicle of their own may soon have access to two additional Zipcars. Mayor David J. Narkewicz announced Friday he hopes to have the car-sharing service Zipcar provide two cars in the downtown Northampton area for use by its members.