Cramer: Memories of Stocks Past

N E W   Y O R K, Dec. 7 -- — If the asbestos claims and the endless losses weren’t enough, the final humiliation has been visited upon Bethlehem Steel, W.R. Grace, Crown Cork and Seal and Owens-Illinois: They have been yanked from the S&P 500.

Can we have a moment of silence for these once-great titans? Who can recall the days when Bessie would trade millions of shares a day and value guys like John Neff and growth folk like Peter Lynch would make giant bets on a $12-a-share number, only to have hopes dashed by the relining of furnace No. 12? Or how about the heyday of W.R. Grace, when break-up analysis placed the whole net worth of the company at less than the value of its Tokyo real estate, its chocolate division and its book reseller?

Dubious Attempt to Go Continental

How about when Crown Cork shuttered all of those plants in the states and went on its magnificent French buying spree in a dubious attempt to go international?

The analysts loved that one.

And Owen-Illinois — how many iterations has that poor industrial workhorse had from the time that people pried Brockway and some health care outfit out of it. Yeah, these were grand ones. My wife, the Trading Goddess, used to monopolize trading in Grace and Bessie. She was forever buying and selling 50,000 shares every time we thought the Fed was going to ease or tighten. It was by rote. Me, I was forever shorting Bessie. I have not