It's March now, so even back in the day when winter was actually winter, the pond skating season would be over. The dirt road leading to Hendy's (short for Henderson's) Pond would be muddy during the day. Sure, Worcester in mid-March would still be good for a snowstorm or two, but the snow would melt soon enough, and we'd be out on our bikes, our skates stored in the basement, hanging on pegs over the sleds and flying saucers that were also retired for the season. (Of course, by the next year, last year's skates were likely overgrown, and Christmas would mean a new pair of skates under the tree.)
But after school, from January through February, all the kids in the neighborhood would be out sledding, building snow forts - or skating at Hendy's.
Most of my skating was at Hendy's, just down the street from our house. It wasn't good on the skate blades to walk over, but if you had skate guards, you could actually hobble down the road on your skates. Which meant you could put them on in the warmth of your house, rather than risk frostbitten fingers by putting them on, sitting on a log or rock once you got the Hendy's.
There was another closeby pond - Woodard's - but that was mostly used by older kids, mostly teenage-ish boys playing hockey. I may have skated at Woodard's once or twice, but mostly I was a Hendy's girl.
Even though the Worcester Arena wasn't far from where I lived - this is where my brothers played pee-wee hockey - I don't think I ever skated in a rink. You had to pay to skate indoors. Who had money for that when skating outside was absolutely free.
Once in a blue moon, my father took us on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon to skate at Elm Park, where after spending a while shuffling around the pond with us, he'd always take off for a few minutes of free skate. He was a terrific athlete, and I was always very proud when he took off, swooping around the ice, skating (fast) backwards. People would watch him, admiring his grace and speed.
I was never a great skater. I wasn't terrible. I skated too frequently to be terrible. But I wasn't great, and I never learned to skate backwards. And when someone started a "whip"- a line of skaters holding hands, with a leader in the first position, skating fast and furious - I loved taking part. I just never wanted to being the last one in the line, because when the whip really got going and took a sudden cray turn or stop, the kid(s) on the whip end could go flying. You really had to hang on for dear life.
When I first started skating, like every other kid, I wore "double runners." These were skates that you strapped on over your shoes. You couldn't go very fast on a double runner, but they were stable and you learned the basics. By the age of seven, I had graduated to lace up white shoe skates. (Boys all wore hockey skates.)
When I was still on double runners - I was six - a "big boy" (i.e., a third grader) skating over to me while I was shuffling around Hendy's, did a fancy side stop spraying a bit of ice my way, and jeered "What's the matter with you? Can't you skate."
This was well over 60 years ago - closer to 70, in fact - and I still remember the look on Brian Reardon's face. (I just googled Brian Reardon and it looks like he decamped to Canada during the Vietnam War and ended up being a pretty high up there judge. I remember him as being one of the smarter kids at our school, but kind of a wiseguy. But good for him for getting out of town. Plenty of boys from our largely blue collar, largely Irish Catholic neighborhood (semper fi USMC territory) went over. Two relations of mine died after the fact as a result of their service. One, a second cousin, died from a heroin overdose a year of so after he returned. He was about twenty. A first-cousin-of-my-first-cousins (shorthand: a cousin) died at the age of 49 of complications related to Agent Orange exposure. So good on Judge Reardon for avoiding the mess that was the Vietnam War.)
Anyway, the mildly unpleasant experience of being made fun of aside, I loved pond skating.
Alas, today's kids won't have many opportunities to experience the joys of skating outdoors, on a pond.
This sad state of affairs was chronicled in an article I saw a few weeks ago.
Winters are warming twice as fast as summers in northern states, scientists have found. Across New England, this winter is shaping up to be one of the warmest on record, driven by an El Niño weather pattern currently in place and climate change, which has increased average temperatures globally. (Source: Boston Globe)
Even in colder-than-Boston Vermont.
In December and January in Vermont, nighttime temperatures were generally around 21 degrees, making those two months the warmest on record in terms of nighttime low temperatures. This year marks the first time in recorded history that there wasn’t any snow on the ground in Burlington, Vt., during the first 12 days of February.
...There are three fewer weeks of freezing conditions in Vermont now than in 1960, according to the state’s climate assessment. Lakes and ponds across the state have been thawing about three days earlier each decade, on average, since 1988.
Resorts that relied on offering pond skating are hurting. Worse yet, kids won't know the thrill of being on the pond, even if they end up on the end of the whip, skidding across the ice on their keisters when they get spun off. Or the agony of having some big kid making fun of your double runners...
Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment