Stories
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The teeth in the front were great for skating backwards. I only had to lean forward and dig the teeth into the ice to stop, with either one or both skates. One could slash the ice with these teeth so that a spray of ice shavings would go flying in a flare of white crystals. One could throw ice even skating forward by digging in the toes and slashing on the power stroke. They were wonderfully fun to show off with, and in the wide open spaces of lake and channels there was no one to tell one you were damaging the ice.
Another big advantage to figures was the high tops extending half way up my shins which gave a great deal of support to the ankles, even if they were slow to lace up and tie when one was always in a big hurry to get on the ice and it was cold out. A disadvantage was that they were considered to be ladies skates, and if one was a boy in those days, one was wearing the wrong kind of skates. Most of the boys in town wore hockies. However most of the boys lived in different part of town than I did and most of the time I skated alone or with my younger brother. Anyway once knowing the difference between the two and in general not skating with the kids in town much anyway, I came to realize early the difference between the image of convention and performance.
Free lake and channel skating has a lot of pre-conditions unlike an indoor rink. There is the first freeze which was probably late November early December. First you would get a thin skin which is melted by the afternoon.
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