When you grow up on a farm, town is a long ways away. Other than going to school on the bus, we went to town once or twice a month for groceries. The ice skating rink was in town.
On our farm there was a low spot in the corner of the field on the south side of the driveway. If there was a early spring thaw and then a cold snap the water would collect in that corner of the field and freeze. It made for a wonderful place to ice skate.
This spot in a nearby field reminded me of Saturday afternoons in the spring. Remember those double runner skates that you strapped onto your boots…sometimes they came undone and you would fall down. We would put our skates on in the house and then tromp to the ice…either that or take a couple of pieces of wood to sit on to put on our skates in the field.
Round and round we would go skating faster and faster, cheeks rosy red, scarves trailing in the wind until we hit weeds coming up out the the ice…that would slow you down. Soon we were tired and still had to change into our now cold boots or walk all the way back to the house in our skates.
As a farm kid, I never knew about skate sharpening. When we were lucky enough to get ice skates they were never sharpened, they were what they were and sometimes you just had to make your own fun.
Morning, ahhh, the pond skating days, loved them. Also loved my skates with the bells on them, Blessings Francine.
ReplyDeleteWe had a skating pond in a farmer's field that we would "use" in winter. And yes, I had the double runner skates too (the unsharpened skates). I never had ankle problems until I switched to figure skates. Also, I can't remember ever owning a NEW pair of skates or skating on an ice rink until I was an adult. Have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteI never had a skating pond, but the ice rink was only a ten minute walk so I was there as often as possible. Lovely photos. xo Laura
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid in California, there were no ice skating ponds, but we did the same with roller skates. Now that I think of it, I've never had a pair of ice skates on my feet. I think I missed out, from the description you give here.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a VERY small rural town in Iowa and it was the same way.... you made your own fun and trust me.... it WAS fun. xox
ReplyDeleteI never learned to skate but did make my own fun when living on the farm. Thanks for jogging my memory.
ReplyDeleteWhat good memories! Growing up in a small town in Nebraska meant hours spent building snow forts and having snowball fights. We had a blast!
ReplyDeleteI read lots of books to mother that included kids skating on the pond. Being in the south, ice skating is a "mystery" to me! lol
ReplyDeleteSkatings fond memories on the farm... very nice. For me not so good as I had weak ankles and skating was painful. Thus my high school career centered on basketball. Not a good choice on the east side in St. Paul where hockey was the number one sport....:)
ReplyDeleteGreat memories - I remember the double bladed skates. Thank you for stopping recently and leaving such a nice comment about our Moe. Happy Weekend!
ReplyDeleteWe four boys would hit the pond and skated and fell down a lot but stayed until our faces were so frozen. I remember the sounds the pond would make that was so scary and it would boom from whatever cause. The ice usually was a foot think so we weren't going to fall in. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteWe were blessed by many lakes nearby to skate on. But skating was never my strong suit. My best memories were of riding everywhere on our snow machines...can't do that anymore here in town but back in the day it was a blast.
ReplyDelete...and we were never cold. We fell through the ice a few times and got soaking wet. We wore fleece lined underwear and a second pair of pants. Dad sharpened skates but he had no idea what he was doing.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering about hitting those weeds...
ReplyDeleteWell, I didn't grow up on a farm, but we had a small pond about half a mile from our house...walking distance when you're motivated...and we'd go skate on that. We had beat up old skates, too, but hey, what did we know?
When I finally got to skate on an official rink--the kind where you had to clear the floor every so often so that machine could go vacuum up all the shavings--I finally realized what a bumpy ride it was to skate on the pond. But somehow, nobody really minded. If there wasn't a pond, we wouldn't be skating at all.
Of course, the bonus was that the water was frozen all the way out to the island in the middle, and we could finally get out there and see what it was like in the midst of that secluded spot :)
Growing up on a farm in Oregon, that low spot in the field was where we got our boots so stuck in the mud that we had to rescued!
ReplyDeleteLike DJan, I have never had ice skates on my feet, but did occasionally go roller skating.
I remember skating on ponds in NY but never learned it very well since I only went a few times. I did better with roller skates - - - but sure wouldn't want to put on a pair now! Lots of broken bones would almost be guaranteed.
ReplyDeleteOh, yeah, had the same skates! My grandpa would try to keep an area on the creek shoveled so we had a place to skate. It usually froze with ridges so your teeth clacked together as you whizzed up the creek! Great memories.
ReplyDeleteI never did learn to skate. And I had real ice skates. And I tried. We had a lake nearby and they had a warming house and cleared area in the winter you could go to skate. I just can't seem to function with my feet 2 inches off the ground. Same thing happened to me with roller skates. I spend my time on my butt or my knees. No fun at all. I could only dream of my scarf trailing in the wind. ;)
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