Dot`sThoughts

Today the picture puzzle I received from the puzzle master site was people ice skating on a large span of water.

That brought back so many wonderful times when I was younger and ice skating with my friends on the Barge Canal , plus on many large ice patches that were found near our homes. There was just the large woods between our home and the Barge Canal and my fathers family owned most all of these woods. So, we often played either swimming in the canal, or ice skating on this canal. It was a great fun place for our family and all of our friends. When we were young, our Parents did insist that we only went there with someone older. An Uncle sometimes accompanied us, as did our older brother. Eventually we became the older ones watching out for our younger brother and sisters.

We never had loads of money back then as my parents had high medical bills to pay. One day one of my much older Cousins gave me a pair of black ice skates that she had owned since she was younger. They had the one runner with the pointed tip. My first pair of ice skates. I knew that most girls owned white shoe ice skates and the boys usually wore the black shoe ice skates. That never stopped me from feeling so very lucky to receive these black shoe ice skates. If you can suddenly love someone more that you have always loved, then that day was one of them. I was flying high- soo very happy to be able to finally go ice skating with the others.
When my feet finally outgrew these black skates, an Aunt gave me a pair of white ice skates that another cousin my age had outgrown. She always took good care of her things, so these skates looked brand new. They had the fancier tips on the blade for easier stopping and changing directions with. Today they probably would have been listed as figure skates. I wore these skates for many years. I had let my younger brother have my black ones. So, now he was able to start going skating with us.
Starting out I first learned how to skate forward around in large circles. Once I had accomplished that and felt steadier I started trying out more movements. It was fun learning how to do figure 8`s and eventually learning how to skate backwards without worrying about falling. All this took lots of practice. Looking back, I still remember how much fun ice skating was. I never became more than a normal ice skater, but Oh! how I did enjoy it.
Years after I was married and had kids old enough to ice skate, my mother gave me both sets of ice skates to take home, the black and the white ones. Everyone at home had outgrown them years before and they were just stored away and mother felt since they were first given to me, that they should go to my children.

Every winter we had a large ice rink form in our empty lot next to our home where our kids and some of their friends used their sleds and ice skates. When my kids were little there were a couple of cheaper style ice skates for them to use. These skates were flat with double runners and braces and straps to hold them onto the bottom of their regular shoes. Older people will remember these, but many of my grandkids and none of my great grandkids have probably ever seen or heard of them. They were called learner skates. The double runners allowed them to move their feet without falling, making it easy to learn to ice skate. The land next to our home lots was a bit lower so the rain and melted snow flowed there both from the road and from the property where our home was built.

After the other children were older , just the youngest daughter was still ice skating on this winter formed ice rink with her girl friend and one of her girlfriends younger brothers. A few years later this friends other little brother , who was just 3 years old learned how to ice skate on our small ice rink. I can still picture him out there ice skating with the others. He was soo small that the first few times he came over I watched them a lot fearing he might fall and get hurt. He seemed a natural skater and soon was skating better than his older brother. I wonder if he ever skated after he grew up? Maybe learning when he was so little gave him less fear of falling and helped to make him feel more secure. Or maybe falling so much when learning to first walk and learning those falls weren`t so bad let him grow up with this fearless feeling. Maybe it was just having faith in his sister who was teaching him. This sister was practically raising her younger brothers and had to take them most every where she went. So, while I thought it very unfair of her parents to tie her childhood down this way, I was so proud of her as I never once heard her complain about having to take them along. She was the kind of loving sister every family should have as long as she wasn`t being made to fullfill the mother`s roll with them.

Once all my kids were grown and there was noone left to use the God made ice rinks, I started banking up the soil for a few feet from the road to prevent the water from flowing and caring the car oil off the road and onto our property.

Isn`t it nice to remember those fun times gone past.