Ice Skating

It warmed up this past week. A January thaw. When I was a kid, a January thaw meant ponds forming in the hollows at the farm, places for ice skating.

My two brothers and I each had a pair of clamp-on skates, the kind that you fastened to the bottom of your shoes. We bought them at Hotz Hardware in Wild Rose—50 cents a pair. Only problem with the clamp-on skates—they pulled the heels from your shoes. But that was a small price to pay for the fun we had.

I was not much of an ice-skater. My brother Don got quite good at it. But his twin brother Darrel, well he was a whiz of a skater. He skated forward, he could cross step, he skated backwards, he cross stepped backward. He skated circles around his twin and me.

We skated every day, after we got home from school and finished our chores. We skated until either another big snow buried our ponds, or spring finally arrived and they disappeared. In those days, winter was a time for fun. It still is.

THE OLD TIMER SAYS: A good story, even if lacking in facts, can help us to see the truth.



WRITING WORKSHOP: The dates for my writing workshop at The Clearing in Door
County for 2010 are August 8-14. Contact www.theclearing.org for further information.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

SAIL (Supporting Active Independent Lives) January 19, noon, Blackhawk Country Club, Madison. (Telling Stories: Why and How?)

Radio interview, January 21, Public Radio, KBRW, Barrow, Alaska. (Story telling)

Oakwood East Community Center, Saturday, February 13, 9:30 a.m. (Three chapters of Delta Kappa Gamma—Educational fraternity) (Stories from the One-Room School)

Eau Claire Farm Show, Eau Claire Indoor Sports Center, March 3, 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. (Stories From The Land)

Aldo Leopold celebration, Lake Geneva Public Library, March 6 (time to be announced). (Old Farm and Blue Shadows Farm)

Wisconsin Studio, Overture Center, Madison, WI, Sunday, March 21, 1:30 p.m. (Old Farm)