Starry! Starry!
Night!
My first pair of
ice skates were used-“hockey”-style with straight-blades.
They had been my
dad’s 8 ½ when he was a kid. His first pair, he had
told me, were a
huge men’s size 11 which had cost him $3.00 way
back somewhere
in his day. He said that the local
shoe store only
had one pair
when he went in with his hard earned and long-saved
3-one dollar
bills (they didn’t yet have “sales tax” back then). Mr.
Salger, the
proprietor, said it would be the last pair he ordered for
the year as
spring was in the offing. It was now or “next-year”!?
Grandma-the-Pragmatic (ever---frugal) wanted dad to
wait. Of course!
Dad-the Practical (ever---resourceful) bought
the “monster”-blades;
Half-filling the
shoe, he stuffed crumpled-up newspaper in the toes.
Reckon! Sure
enough! It worked. Dad was one fine ice skater!
On winter-nights
when we had endured three days of 10° weather,
Dad determined
the pond ice would be frozen thick enough for one
of our infamous
nighttime skating adventures. The “key” to a safe-
thickness of the
ice was 4-inches. Keen as he was on the intricacies
of Mother Nature
and her demands for safety, he always
took the ax
to chop a hole
in the ice to be sure of the ice-depth. Ever-careful!
He and I would schlep on down to the pond under the
clear night sky
punctuated with
myriad twinkling blue-white diamonds inviting.
On the side of
the natural “ice-rink” where no one would skate and
hit the “hole”,
he would do his magic “chop-chop” safety-test.
Satisfied with
the thickness, we would go to the cattle loafing shed
where Poppy kept
the butchering wood-pile, select several pieces for
our bon-fire,
gather some dry bark and sticks for kindling and shuttle
the makings to
the edge of the “rink”. Quite the adventure for a
fledgeling of
seven with an appetite for all things natural. Wow!
What a
“special”-treat to be with dad in the “manly”-preparations!
Once we had a
toasty fire crackling, we would trek back to Poppy and
Grandma’s
farmhouse where the women and “children” awaited our
arrival to
announce the “Ice is safe!” And, “The fire is warm!”
Then we would
each grab a bucket to utilize as “seats” around the comfort-
fire as we
donned skates; the adults checked for tight-fit in the lacings.
After a couple
of hours whizzing around the pond and the fire burned down,
a tired crew
returned to the house for Poppy’s infamous Sugar-popcorn!
Ah!---Precious-memories!...Starry!
Starry! Night!
