Out on the Ice

I took #1 Ice-skating on Sunday for the first time. Boy this brought back memories. I remember skating for the first time when I was about 7 years of age. My memory is a little foggy, but I do remember my grandfather skating with us. My brother and I rented a pair of figure skates and went for a couple hundred falls. The rink was just down from my house at the corner of main and 5th Ave. There was an old wooden warming house and the ice was lit with little light bulbs strung together held up by a few poles. I remember my grandpa gliding over the ice and thinking that was the coolest thing I have ever seen. I soon got the hang of skating and many a Christmas where rung in with a new pair of skates under the tree. I never lived more than two blocks away from the rink and I would go skating after school, on the weekends, over Christmas vacation, every chance I would get. Every fall I couldn’t wait to walk by and see the local workers flooding the rink and thinking, “only a few more days.” Skating was the coolest pastime. (No pun intended) I think I liked it so much because I was good at it. I could always find a couple of friends to play “pump” (a form of tag) or grab my hockey stick and slap the puck around. I would even skate when the temp was so warm that patches of grass where exposed thru the ice and puddles of water were everywhere. When I turned 16 I got a new pair of skates, I went a few times that winter but my interest turned to playing guitar and dating. I never went again. Sunday I got on the ice for the first time in 28 years. What a flood of memories, the smell of the warming house, the kids all learning to skate, and my daughter venturing out for the first time on her new skates. I still got it, although I was shaky for the first half an hour. By the time we left I was zooming around again like a little kid, running up and down the ice at full speed stopping on a dime, and tearing it up. I was never so proud as to see my daughter overcome her fear and make her way around the ice by herself. I live in a bigger city now and getting to the only outdoor rink left in town is a ten-minute drive. I can’t say that #1 will skate as much as I did, but she seams to enjoy the challenge and once again I’m making memories out on the ice.