Skater Short - September 14, 2019
Roller
I have over 150 songs on my slow-jog mp3 player. The songs range from the 60s to the current decade, but most are from the 1970s. Why? Because I turned 13 in 1970. I would love to play my song list when we travel to and from Belleville or Sudbury but hubs flatly refuses. He cannot stand my eclectic mix of Black gospel, AC/DC, contemporary Christian, Joni Mitchell and beyond.
Two singers stand out for me these days. One is Melanie – especially her song “I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates…” and the other is Rod Stewart from his album – “Every Picture Tells a Story.”
In the 70s I was into roller skating on Saturday nights at the Ben Bleeker Auditorium (which has since been demolished because it had, according to the Belleville newspaper, “a lot of deficiencies.” ??? ) Was I into roller skating for the exercise? Heck no! I was there to watch the cute boys. The most popular song was “Maggie May.” If you were ever going to be asked to skate by a young lad, this was the song. Not that any of them ever asked me to skate – I was a complete nerd. But I did dream.
Turns out my hubs was into roller skating too in his teens. This was when he was 16 and living in Egmondville. (Hee hee hee!!! Even spell-check has no idea what to do with this name!) The other day at my Mom’s we were talking about the Apollo manned moon landing of 1969. Laur said he missed it. “What?!” “Yeah,” he said, “I went out roller skating!” We asked why but we knew what the answer would be. “There were cute girls there.”
Hope he had better luck finding a skating partner than I did. On the other hand, maybe not. As the song goes “God bless the broken road that led me straight to you.”
I was considering taking up roller blading this summer – until I broke my collarbone. Roller blading would likely have caused more damage than a mere broken road.
*****
Ice
Growing up in Sudbury where the cold weather and snow started sometime late in October, northern kids learned to walk, skate and ski all around the same time. Sudbury has – or at least use to have – what you call “a usable winter.” That is the kind way of saying unending snow, ice and cold.
All of our kids walked late, skated late, and skied late. To be fair, their mother (that would be me) was a southerner so perhaps that accounted for part of it. But one of our kids – Tom – was not a proficient skater by the time he hit the double digits. His buddies (and their folks) on the other hand would be getting up at 4 am for 5 am hockey practice at the rink.
What to do? I talked to one of the Moms who ran the Can Skate program in Sudbury. Tommy was too old to be part of the “learn to skate” program and not experienced enough to join the “improve your skating” program. Hmmm… The obvious answer was to take him out skating more – but for a variety of reasons, this wasn’t an easy option.
Debbie (not her real name – I can’t remember her name anyway) had a thought. She said, “We are always looking for volunteers to help with teaching the little kids how to skate…” Tom loves kids; kids love Tom. And it worked. As he was teaching them the basics of skating, he improved on his. And everyone had a riot!
St. Catharines does not have a usable winter. It’s grey, windy, and raining. When Laur and I cannot go to Arizona anymore, I want to head north from January 1st to March end. I have visions of GoodLife Monday – Wednesday – Friday mornings and cross country skiing and snowshoeing and skating Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday.
Laur pointed out two possible flaws in my plan. One is that if we are too old to go to AZ, we may be too old to go to Sudbury. But I said, “Not necessarily…” What will keep us from going to AZ are rising health care insurance costs. And Sudbury is part of Canada – at least it was the last time we were up there - so we’re covered.
Laur also pointed out that I didn’t cross-country ski or snowshoe when I lived there and this is true. But nor did I jog, swim, and hike up mountains. True, I’ll never be a speed demon. I never have been. But I’ll plod to A from B and back again – mp3 player under my parka.
The skating I’m not so sure of. When you fall while skiing or snowshoeing – and you will fall – you hit snow. When you fall while skating, you hit ice. But I can now buy from Amazon a package that has protection for hips, knees, and wrists. Add a helmet and shoulder pads and I’m off.
Never sure where I’m going but I’m definitely “off” somewhere…
PS – Laur approved the story, but not the pictures. I just couldn’t resist…
I have over 150 songs on my slow-jog mp3 player. The songs range from the 60s to the current decade, but most are from the 1970s. Why? Because I turned 13 in 1970. I would love to play my song list when we travel to and from Belleville or Sudbury but hubs flatly refuses. He cannot stand my eclectic mix of Black gospel, AC/DC, contemporary Christian, Joni Mitchell and beyond.
Two singers stand out for me these days. One is Melanie – especially her song “I’ve Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates…” and the other is Rod Stewart from his album – “Every Picture Tells a Story.”
In the 70s I was into roller skating on Saturday nights at the Ben Bleeker Auditorium (which has since been demolished because it had, according to the Belleville newspaper, “a lot of deficiencies.” ??? ) Was I into roller skating for the exercise? Heck no! I was there to watch the cute boys. The most popular song was “Maggie May.” If you were ever going to be asked to skate by a young lad, this was the song. Not that any of them ever asked me to skate – I was a complete nerd. But I did dream.
Turns out my hubs was into roller skating too in his teens. This was when he was 16 and living in Egmondville. (Hee hee hee!!! Even spell-check has no idea what to do with this name!) The other day at my Mom’s we were talking about the Apollo manned moon landing of 1969. Laur said he missed it. “What?!” “Yeah,” he said, “I went out roller skating!” We asked why but we knew what the answer would be. “There were cute girls there.”
Hope he had better luck finding a skating partner than I did. On the other hand, maybe not. As the song goes “God bless the broken road that led me straight to you.”
I was considering taking up roller blading this summer – until I broke my collarbone. Roller blading would likely have caused more damage than a mere broken road.
*****
Ice
Growing up in Sudbury where the cold weather and snow started sometime late in October, northern kids learned to walk, skate and ski all around the same time. Sudbury has – or at least use to have – what you call “a usable winter.” That is the kind way of saying unending snow, ice and cold.
All of our kids walked late, skated late, and skied late. To be fair, their mother (that would be me) was a southerner so perhaps that accounted for part of it. But one of our kids – Tom – was not a proficient skater by the time he hit the double digits. His buddies (and their folks) on the other hand would be getting up at 4 am for 5 am hockey practice at the rink.
What to do? I talked to one of the Moms who ran the Can Skate program in Sudbury. Tommy was too old to be part of the “learn to skate” program and not experienced enough to join the “improve your skating” program. Hmmm… The obvious answer was to take him out skating more – but for a variety of reasons, this wasn’t an easy option.
Debbie (not her real name – I can’t remember her name anyway) had a thought. She said, “We are always looking for volunteers to help with teaching the little kids how to skate…” Tom loves kids; kids love Tom. And it worked. As he was teaching them the basics of skating, he improved on his. And everyone had a riot!
St. Catharines does not have a usable winter. It’s grey, windy, and raining. When Laur and I cannot go to Arizona anymore, I want to head north from January 1st to March end. I have visions of GoodLife Monday – Wednesday – Friday mornings and cross country skiing and snowshoeing and skating Tuesday – Thursday – Saturday.
Laur pointed out two possible flaws in my plan. One is that if we are too old to go to AZ, we may be too old to go to Sudbury. But I said, “Not necessarily…” What will keep us from going to AZ are rising health care insurance costs. And Sudbury is part of Canada – at least it was the last time we were up there - so we’re covered.
Laur also pointed out that I didn’t cross-country ski or snowshoe when I lived there and this is true. But nor did I jog, swim, and hike up mountains. True, I’ll never be a speed demon. I never have been. But I’ll plod to A from B and back again – mp3 player under my parka.
The skating I’m not so sure of. When you fall while skiing or snowshoeing – and you will fall – you hit snow. When you fall while skating, you hit ice. But I can now buy from Amazon a package that has protection for hips, knees, and wrists. Add a helmet and shoulder pads and I’m off.
Never sure where I’m going but I’m definitely “off” somewhere…
PS – Laur approved the story, but not the pictures. I just couldn’t resist…