The Greeley tribune., 1903-12-24
The Skating Pond !:
THEN AND NOW
THEN AND NOW

"A continuous string OF youths and |
maidens, besides some old boys and
girls, is now each afternoon and
evening winding its way to and
from the new skating pond just north
OF the city. The hay that at first |
bothered the skaters is rapidly being
harvested and the stubble is beng
covered by regular noodings OF the
ice. Soon the pond will be nearly |
an ideal skating place, or would have
been had some OF the older young
men not placed 1000 candle power
acetylene gas lamp In the center.
However, by keeping close to the
edges this will not interfere much.
The artificial skating pond is good,
but 1t can't come up to the old
places we used to go to when we we're
boys. That was before girls knew
much about skating.
1t is not so good as the little pond
just beyond the barn where we
buckled on our "half clubs" for the
first time and drove two or three big
wedges under the toe straps after we
had buckled these as tight as we
could. OF course, this stopped any
circulation of blood through the toes
that had not already been frozen,
back toward the heart. But 1T was
great fun anyway and mother would
let US 90 there as much as we
wanted to.
BY and by this pond grew too
small for our ambitions and we
sought the lake, little farther
away, after father had tested the
thickness of the ice with an ak. We
also skated some in the evening but
we were not bothered with 1000 candle
power acetylene lamps. Instead we
had great big cracking fire Of pitch
pine or tamarack boughs that grew
on the other side of the lake. 1t was
best though to let the big boys gather
the wood in the evening for there
was no telling what monsters or gob-
lins might be looking for little boy
just beyond that circle of light that
just seemed to touch the first row Of
tamaracks. But goblins would al
ways fight shy Of fire. Day times
they were not so bad and little hoy
might 20 down on the ice alone, II he
did not 90 out over the deep part of
the lake; out there were big black
air holes could be seen with long
arms like those OF an octopus stretch
ing out in every direction. These
holes were used by the big ''ice
bears" to breathe through. 1t was
easy enough to tell when one was
coming up to breathe from the rum
bling in the ice that could be heard
away home. Perhaps the reason why
nobody but the big boys ever saw the
''ice bears was that little boy had
to be in the house before the bear
came up through the air hole, or he
would be taken.
There were no lice bears on the
pond, so that was where we were
safe and could strike Santa Clauses
on the ice with rock as much as we
pleased. On these artificial skating
ponds the boys and girls don't know
what a Santa Claus is. To see him
at his best select pond OF 'black
ice" about two inches thick. Take
a good sized rock and strike a blow
on TIE ice and you will see all the
colors OF the rainbow, Perhaps they
don't call these things Santa Claus
any more, but we did.
When we we're ten or eleven years
old and began to feel bit like big
boy on Saturday we would sometimes
10 away over on the ''crick,' be-
cause the ice was always thinner
there and we could do some DARN
You remember how we used to shout,
.'cracking ice will never break, un-
til that day when little Peter Rice,
who didn't know any better, got
right up close to the edge OF the hole
the water had worn and the ice broke
with him. He was just about to te
pIlled under the ice by the swift
current when "Toughy" jumped into
the water after him. 1t didn't seem
50 bad until you dreamed about it
that night, and instead Of Peter it
was you who was in the water and
"'Toughy" was just too late to catch
YOU. The gurgling Of the water in
your ears and the choking awakened
you.
But all that is past now and there
IRE not the dangers in skating on the
artificial pond that there were on
the old lake and ''crick,' aud our
mothers probably wouldn't scold us
a bit, even II we went away down
stream to Whistler's bridge and
didn't come home until after dark,