A few months ago, we cleaned out my parents’ house that they lived in since I was just 9 months old. Without giving away my age, let’s just say it’s been a few years. In the boxes buried in basement closets, we found all sorts of things from when my brother and I were kids: flattened basketballs, R2D2, Strawberry Shortcake, whiffle ball and bat, and these old ice skates.

In my town of 120 people, across the road from our house was a ¼ acre field. Each winter, the farmer would flood the field to make a skating rink for the kids in town…all six of us. The nice part was, mom could just yell out the front door when it was time for supper.

I didn’t master the ice skates like I did the roller skates though I used to lay awake at night and dream of doing a triple lutz. That was also back in the day when a few hours in the cold didn’t phase me and now if I’m out for more than 10 minutes I’m claiming frostbite so I can head back to the house.

These skates put a few laps on around the old rink, but you had to watch out for corn stalks sticking up through the ice. I was always glad when he rotated to soybeans – it made for a cleaner ice skating surface!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Until we walk again …