2022 RECAP: BOOTS AND BLADES

Sheila Yates

ST. LOUIS UNION TRAIN STATION  1894

I took my mother’s hand as we made our way into St. Louis’s 1894 spectacular Union Train Station filled with freeways of train tracks, gold leaf ceilings, arches and richly colored stained glass windows. My mother and I walked down the vast indoor entry staircase under the glorious Whispering Arch.

I couldn’t resist——I whispered to my Mother, “Did you hear a whisper?  She whispered back to me that we had to proceed to another area to hear our whispers. “Right now,  we immediately need to find our train track. ”

The arch was stunning with a Tiffany stained glass window in the background.

We were on our way to a new adventure: my first ice skating adventure. It was a summer ice skating program and we were to be there only three weeks because we did not want to leave my Daddy too long who was at home alone. I would take lessons from a coach who taught beginners and then I would take a figure test where three judges would check to see if I was on the right skate edge when I created a pattern on brand new clean ice.  (Perfect circles counted big time and that was pretty much what my first test comprised——perfect circles, traced on the right edges——Big Time For Me!))

Example: (Skater in below illustration is practicing part of an advanced pattern where three circles were completed on one foot using inside and outside edges with loop patterns on top and bottom.  After completing those first three correct circle sizes on clear ice, he is practicing it over and over . Here he is pushing off to start one more time on an inside skate edge.)                                                                                                                             

At 11 year of age, I was petrified to stand in front of those judges and do my first simple circles of edges. But that was only the genesis of what would be years of more tests, years of standing in front of judges on clear ice (a nervously and jittery, hopeful)  skater creating those compulsory figure shapes well. Moving up to more and more difficult tests.  During  the winters, I skated  at my home rink in St. Louis.

My summer skating experiencer s took place in different states and Canada with continued learning sessions of foot work, jumps and spins. Whole days are set aside for testing and the skaters who tested on that day checked on bulletin boards at the end of the day. If you found your name posted on the bulletin board, you passed. Thrilled and nonplussed, my eleven year old self saw her name that first summer in Minnesota——I passed my first test!