Village Squire, 1980-02, Page 34P.S.
•
The joy of
skating
outside
BY KEITH ROULSTON
The rain had come and the snow had
melted. Now the cold came. The wind
dropped until all was still. And in the
morning the miracle had happened.
The pond, which only yesterday had
been just a big puddle of water from the
runoff was now turned into a playground.
We came, big kids and small to play on this
natural wonderland, to cut arcs in the ice
with our skates and feel the exhilarating
freedom of skating on the pond.
That's not a memory of long ago. It
happened last month in our neighbourhood
during the periodic melting and freezing
periods that made this January so unusual.
A neighbour dropped by to say the pond
was nearly perfect for skating and invited
us to use it.
No doubt there aren't many who can say
they've enjoyed a skate on an outdoor pond
in recent years. It used to be a regular
occurrence for people living just about
anywhere in this country. Doing some
research into an old-time hockey player
recently I learned how games for all the
younger players in town were played on
either the river or pond ice because the
youngsters were crowded out of the indoor
rink by curlers and senior hockey players.
Most of our greatest hockey players of
the time up until the 1960's honed their
skills on prairie sloughs or eastern
Canadian mill ponds.
There were a lot of things against that
kind of winter sport of course. It could be
dangerous, particularly for youngsters
trying to hurry the winter by getting
out on the ponds early or trying to skate too
late into the spring, or skating on a river
where the current kept the ice from
freezing to sufficient thicknesses.
Getting good ice on an open body of
water was always a problem. It seemed too
often there was -a ripple on the water when
it froze making skating a little like driving
over a washboard road and very hard on
keeping an edge on the blades. Or on a
quiet pond heavy snow would fall during
the freezing, leaving slush that froze into a
crust.
You can't blame people for seeking
better ways to enjoy winter. People began
to build outdoor natural ice rinks, then
moved to indoor rinks which got larger and
larger. As a member of the Last generation
to grow up with natural ice, I can recall the
frustration of doing things the natural v. -ay.
Oldtimers will tell you how cold the winters
used to be but if you were a kid growing up
in the days before artificial ice you don't
believe them. It seemed the winters were
always too warm. It took forever for it to
get cold enough for the icemaker at the lo •
cal rink to be able to confidently go to work.
It was usually mid December before we got
to take our first glide on the ice. The ice
was out by late March at the latest and a lot
of time in between seemed to be either
unusable or slushy and mushy.
I was one of those who cheered when
they put artificial ice in our our local arena
even though the expenditure of $25,000 or
so seemed an impossible amount.
Now of course that's peanuts. We've
gone on from artificial ice to building grand
new ice palaces in nearly every community
of any size. The facilities offered by these
new arenas were unheard of for earlier
generations. I remember playing hockey in
a natural ice rink one night with the only
heat coming from a roaring fire in a wore'
stove. The side of you near the stove '. as
warm as you dressed but the other side. waw
freezing. Imagine the comparison between
that and the comfort of being able to take a
shower in a climate controlled dressing
room of today.
No I don't long to return to yesterday but
I'd like to see us bring the best of the old
days into our modern days. It seems now
that unless something costs a fortune we're
not interested in it. A free skate on an open
pond is scoffed at when it's fashionable to
skate in a half -million dollar arena. Who to
bboggans anymore when the only thing
that counts is running around on a
PG. 32 VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1980
snowmobile or at the very least an
expensive cross-country ski outfit?
Whoever wrote "The best things in life
are free" didn't live in this day and age.
People complain like heck about the cost of
living but ignore the free pleasures in
favour of the artificial and expensive ones.
That skate on the pond brought back so
many memories for me. I'd forgotten how
exhilarating and liberating it could be.
There were no walls, no boundaries, no
rules. We could come and go as we wanted
with only our aching muscles and cold
fingers to set time limits. We could play
games and joke and • do whatever we
wanted without worrying about disturbing
anyone or bringing down the wrath of.the
arena manager.
Yet hardly•anyone knows those feelings
today. There are a few places where
outdoor rinks still operate. 1 remember
enjoying the open-air city hall rink in
Toronto. 1 envy the people of Ottawa with
miles of the Rideau Canal set aside for
skating. Today though in our small centres
we can match the -cities for the things that
cost money. like arenas but it's the joys
that are free that we're missing.
Color
Your
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