Ice Skating

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Generations of kids sitting on the bench and digging their skates into the wood does some damage!

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But it did make a great place to hang my skates while I was taking my boots off.

My childhood home was down the street from the local ice skating rink and many happy afternoons were spent speeding on the ice with family and friends. When I was twelve my family moved to a different town and I have only been back to the rink a handful of times since then. I don’t think I have skated at all in the past three years.

But on Sunday I found my old ice skates and today was too beautiful to waste so I headed down to the rink. Benefit #709 of living in a small town: I got the rink all to myself. (Aside from a pigeon that eyed me from the rafters.) Plus the ice was pristine, no one had been on the ice since it had last been Zamboni-ed.

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An empty rink.

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A not-quite-so-empty rink.

Thankfully, skating is like biking in the sense that once you learn the skill you don’t forget it. I was particularly pleased to discover that I could still skate backward without falling on my head.

I skated until my feet became uncomfortable from being cooped up within the confines of figure skates and then I headed home. On the ride back I stopped at an intersection while I waited for a snowplow to go by. Both guys in the snowplow smiled and waved at me. I am guessing they have passed me before on one of my travels!

11 thoughts on “Ice Skating”

  1. Great to see places with a bit of character to them. My old skating rink is another faceless corporate money spinner where holes in the sides from years of heel tapping would not be tolerated, sadly.!

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  3. Nice post!

    I was raised in a small town on the outskirts of Toronto. A hockey town. As a kid, I lived and breathed hockey. We had a local indoor rink where I spent most of my time either playing or watching others play. We moved away almost 50 years ago. Long before you were born. Last year, I returned to the rink for the first time. It hadn’t changed. The seating and dressing rooms had a fresh coat of paint but otherwise, everything else was the same only older.

    I was actually moved to tears visiting the place again. We hold onto childhood memories, particularly the good ones.

    And, by the way, it is nice to see you without the ski goggles.

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  4. I have NEVER ever been on ice skates in my life. I played some roller hockey on roller blades for a couple of summer. That’s the closest I’ve been. 🙂

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  5. A FREE rink? Wow – that’s awesome. I can’t believe that it’s not busier! It costs at least $15 to go ice-skating here, and the rinks are so busy that if anyone falls it causes a major pile up.

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