Future Rinkrat?
Phoebe has started skating lessons in New Bedford with one of her buddies. In her first outing she pushed around a double stack of milk crates but the second time out the coach decided she was ready for the big time. She fell a lot but was pushing herself and having fun and didn’t seem to care. There a lot of kids in the class but there are also a lot of coaches and volunteers so she gets good individual attention. I don’t know if she will go on to play hockey but kids in New England should know how to skate. I had the choice of hockey or basketball growing up and went with basketball which is a bit easier on the parents. Gaga and Puppa felt I should be able to skate so I took lessons with Brian.
Technically they were figure skating lessons but without a toe pick we were not hassled too much. Hockey parents are perhaps the most dedicated of the sports parents due to the lack of facilities and rather insane ice time. Swimming parents are not far behind. This does seem to be changing as our 10 year old neighbor is on a travel basketball squad that requires serious miles on the tires with trips to New Hampshire for one hour games. I took the ladies to watch him play a recent home game and I was truly floored by the level of play. Asking 4th graders to make 60 points on a 10 foot basket without a defense is already a stretch. These kids scored that against the opposition with full 5 on 5 play. Presses, plays, picks, baseline jumpers, encouragement from the coach to “box out” and “work the floor”. Fourth graders! I was secretly satisfied when they routed the competition since they were playing a school system that used to regularly pick on us (Nauset). Anyway, Phoebe has hit the ice and if this winter proves to be a cold one, the bogs and ponds will freeze over and I will pick up a used pair of Bauers and we can do some skating together. It is a thrill and I sometimes think about the Dutch getting around on ice in their canals. Several times while at Princeton, Lake Carnegie froze over and I had a three mile stretch to skate on. Probably nothing could beat my experience in Switzerland on Lac du Joux (photo below). Six miles of pure Swiss open air ice spoiled only by the heart stopping noise of a crack running clear across the lake as the ice shifted. I’ll take Phoebe to Frog Pond in Boston Common when she is ready in order to fulfill some kind of Massachusetts tradition which is completely naive to the likes of a Lac du Joux. Until then I will enjoy watching her through the glass.
