Skating at the Park

Throughout the 80s I can clearly remember the fire department in Goderich flooding the tennis courts at the town pool area on Nelson Street.  The ice rink was that big - basically two tennis courts wide and long.  There was another rink too.  A secondary rink on the grass area for figure skating.  The tennis courts were reserved for hockey.  It was a source of memories for me, and good ones at that.

By and by however the courts did not get flooded in subsequent years during the late 80s and into the 90s.  I suppose it got to be too much work, or too much liability in case of accident.  For whatever the reason there wasn't a community minded outdoor skating rink for quite sometime here.  For a few years in the mid 2000s there was a rink up on the square in Goderich.  I was never on it.  Nor do I remember it lasting that long.  Again the reasons for its demise could have been unpredictable weather, not enough volunteers, too much cost or liability of course.

For the past 3 or 4 years a group of volunteers have resurrected the outdoor rink at the tennis courts.  It has two sets of rinks each about the size of a NBA sized basketball court.  One of the rinks is skating only, and the other has a perimetre set of 4 foot high boards and nets for pick-up hockey.  There are about a dozen different implements such as shovels and such to clear the ice, and a number of benches to sit on to put on skates.  A dedicated group of volunteers flood it when it is appropriate to do so, and by all accounts it gets used quite often.

Molly and I hit it up for 45 minutes or so today.  There was always about a dozen other like minded people on the skating only side, and about a half dozen kids playing hockey on that side.  The sun was poking out and it made it really nice with the accompanying blue cloudless sky.  Molly seemed to do much better then she does indoor at the YMCA in town.  I can't explain that, however it seemed like it to me.