Growing up in the upper Midwestern United States, one of our winter activities was ice skating. Minnesota is called the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. I lived in Western Wisconsin and we had a lot of lakes, too! They froze during the winter and provided an annual playground for kids and adults.
Duluth, Minnesota
My dad was in the United State Air Force during the 1950 and 1960. Typical of a military career, my parents, sister, and I moved from base to base. One stop was at a base near Duluth, Minnesota from 1964-66. I was 3-5 years old. I don’t remember many details except a few triggered by looking at old photos that my mom took.
It was rare that we would ever leave the base, so ice skating rinks in the winter were created by the grown ups so they could easily keep an eye on us. One year they made a skating rink in the center square where there were base housing units surrounding it. All I had to do was step outside our front door and I was right there. I don’t remember learning how to skate. One advantage of it being so cold outside is we dressed in layers. That helped cushion the fall on the ice.
Luck, Wisconsin
When my dad retired from the Air Force in 1968, we moved permanently to Luck, Wisconsin. He bought the house from my mom’s parents. It is situated 100 yards north of a small lake called Little Butternut. At its deepest the lake is 23 feet.
Water flows into it from a small creek coming from Big Butternut Lake in the town of Luck, a few miles to to the east. Water leaves via Butternut Creek and meanders for miles until it reached Long Trade Lake.
In the summer, I spent time in Little Butternut swimming, boating, fishing. In the winter, it was ice fishing and ice skating. Most years, when the lake would freeze, the surface would be rough with uneven ripples. Wind blowing during the freezing process would cause the surface to be uneven for the rest of the winter. Not long after freezing snow would fall and not melt for the rest of the winter. For us to skate, we had to shovel out our own rink.
(Side note: if you have ever heard ice crack on a large body of water – it is very eerie. As ice cracks and shifts, sound waves echo under the ice.)
I eventually outgrew my black figure skates. My parents bought me a well-worn pair of hockey skate. Not only were they way too big for my feet, but the blades were so tall that my ankles got sore within minutes trying to keep them from slipping sideways! If we really ice skated a lot, I’m sure I could have asked for a proper pair.
A few years after my sister and I graduated from high school, we came back home to visit our parents for Christmas. The ice had frozen smooth and there was no snow. You could skate almost anywhere on the lake, except for a few well-known spots where the water entered and exited the lake because the ice was thin. You could see how thick the ice was by looking at it closely. Occasionally you could see things float by underneath it.
