
We’re in Canada. It’s February. People are skating! How about you?
Many of us have fond memories of the many years when outdoor rinks were set up at Trace Manes, so it was easy to see who was out getting their winter exercise.
Did you know that twice a week there is free skating for adults at Leaside Memorial Community Gardens? Tuesdays from 11-12 and Thursdays from 11:30-12:30, and at no cost, thanks to the Leaside Gardens board. At least 90 people know this, and show up quite regularly. Ron Cannata has been the “keeper of the list” since 2015. It’s a bit of an open question as to when this skating program actually started, but at least a few years before.
I got to sit on one of the players’ benches on one of their Tuesday skates, at the “old” rink, now known as Rink B, or the Bert F. Grant Rink, to chat with and watch maybe 30 skaters go counterclockwise round the oval. Feeling cold sitting there, I left the skate, but I have it on good authority that at half time, they switch direction. If I’d come on a Thursday, I’d have been ice-side at the Dr. Tom Pashby Play Safely Rink (Rink A), aka the “new” rink.
Skaters of various ability levels and ages, men and women, wearing helmets, or not, were all circling. South Leasider Tim Sellers showed up wearing the red corduroy Leaside Hockey Association jacket his dad bought him four decades ago. Originally, he came to become strong enough to return to hockey after a ruptured Achilles tendon. Now he keeps coming for the enjoyment and camaraderie. One person he got reacquainted with was John Woolacott from the time they worked together many years ago. John, along with Stu Crawford, Ron Boudreau and Hugh Rising, have or have had hockey and shinny in their backgrounds.
North Leasider Janice Price took up skating again as a retirement project. She has a photo of her as a competitive figure skater at the same rink from the 1970s. She still skates in 1970s leather skates, because she finds the new ones seem to have more of a lift, and don’t feel quite right.
I spoke with many other skaters. I re-met Sarah Bissinger, who grew up in Leaside and is now back in the neighbourhood. The only couple I met – Son Roberts and Nancy McGovern – really love skating outdoors and know a few secret places. Son told me that these skaters at the Gardens are “hip and cool people.” And Dan Pascoe wanted me to give a shout-out to all the rink staff for their maintenance efforts.
Certainly, Jennifer Smith, director of business and finance at the Gardens, knows her way around rinks. Before taking on this job she was president of the Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association for many years.
So, why not get those skates out of storage and lace up at Leaside Gardens sometime over the next little while? You need your own skates, or you can pick up a pair on a Facebook “buy and sell” page. And bring your earbuds if you like music to accompany your twirls.