ICE SKATING

When I was in high school our class would have ice skating parties.  Most of the time we had them in an old river bed north of town.  It was a perfect place to have it because the water was protected from the wind and that meant the ice was smooth, it also protected us from the wind.  One time we had it at a pond in a pasture without any trees for protection and it was rough and cold.  But the times that I enjoyed the most was when my brother and sister and I would get together with some country kids north of us.   Our farm home was ten miles from town. We were in the corner of the county so the addresses and telephone company would change.  There were five farm families that had kids about the same age. We went to three different schools. We did several things together and ice skating was one of them.  If it snowed we would have to shovel the snow off of the ice so we could skate.  We skated at night because most of the time the wind would be still.  We had bonfires to help us warm up and give some light.    One time some one brought a car tire to help the fire out. We went home black and stinking--no more tires!  One of the kids fixed up a pole with two six volt flood lights that ran off a battery. We thought that was great, but the best light would be a full moon "Beautiful".   We would have hot chocolate, and toast marshmallows on the fire.  When it got real cold and the ice was thick we would drive a car on the ice and spin around. Our skates were clamp on skates. I still have mine.   One Christmas we got shoe skates. That really helped.  These five families had two boys each about the same age. We were together quite often growing up.   I have seen some of them in the later years.   Out of the ten boys five have passed away, one from each family.   This was some of my best years growing up.   Thank the Lord for the time spent with them.