They set up an ice rink here over the Holidays and since I grew up in Alaska and ice skating was a big part of my childhood my brother Mark and I thought it would be fun to take Simon. He received the knee pads with his skateboard for Christmas and it was all his idea to wear them ice skating – Hilarious!
He was really unsure about this.
All of this was a lot of fun until he fell flat on his face, he didn’t even break his fall with his knees so the knee pads were of no help. After the giant knot on his head he decided he hated ice skating. When I was growing up ice skating was something pretty much everyone did becuase it was cheap or free so long as you had skates. Every single elementary, junior high, and high school has an ice rink. It’s as simple as building a concrete slab and flooding it in the winter. The quality of the ice is not that great but pretty much ever elementary school kid ice skates during gym class and if you want at recess too (and the school always had plenty of skates you could borrow if you didn’t own any however dull they might be.) Often in the evenings my parents would take us back to the school so we could skate some more and slap around a hockey puck. I started taking lesson when I was 3 – almost a year younger than Simon is now and I don’t remember ever being afraid of falling (maybe my mom remembers otherwise) I do remember my sole goal – a double axel. Of course I was disappointed to find out that they don’t teach those for the first decade or so of ice skating lessons. Instead the beginning lessons focus on control and strength. And at ages 3, 4, and 5 I found the lessons to be awfully dull. I just wanted to get to the part to when you jumped and twirled in the air! being my strong willed self I didn’t let those teachers or the rest of the class hold me back, while they were all learning a simple controlled semi turn I was practicing jumping and spinning (out of control) as fast as I could. I don’t remember how old I was but I do remember that when it came time to advanced to the next level I didn’t pass. Basically I flunked ice skating. I remember the teachers handing out level completion certificates to all the other kids. I was stunned and probably embarrassed that I didn’t get one and I remember fleeing the ice as fast as possible. The instructor came over and talked to my mom after class and said if I promised to work really hard and to LISTEN to what the teacher said follow along with the class I could pass to the next level. “Forget it” I said, “I don’t want to do ice skating any more!” Just thinking back on all of this makes me wonder how on earth my mother parented a child like me!
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I got to practice lots of patience and love.