December of 1963 was cold in Ottawa, Illinois. The average temperature was 13 degrees, and it was as low as -18. This was cold, even by Illinois standards. I was in Third grade and my sister Roberta was in First. Our youngest sister, Tanya wouldn’t start kindergarten for one more year. Mom bundled Roberta and I up every morning and we’d walk the half mile to McKinley School together. Big brothers and younger sisters always have an interesting relationship – when we weren’t fighting, I like to think I was pretty protective of ‘Berta.

With the cold, the pond at Varland’s cow pasture, a block from the house, froze solid and after school, we kids went there to play on it. (Varland’s pasture later became Varland Park, and the pond was in what is now center field of the second baseball diamond). A few of the older kids had ice skates, but us younger ones just slid around the ice in our boots. That was about to change.

The Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, would start in January of ‘64. There was lots of talk of skating and skiing in the news and on TV. There was a young 16 year old by the name of Peggy Fleming who was particularly creating interest in figure skating. It spiked an interest in the winter sports, and lots of kids were hoping for skates on Christmas morning.

Christmas came and the three of us kids tore open our presents. Roberta and I were both excited to receive skates and wanted to head to the pond immediately to try them out. Common sense (and mom) prevailed, and we finished opening our presents and had breakfast. Then it was time to go.

We bundled up, grabbed our skates, and ran to the pond. It had snowed the night before, so Dad came along with a shovel to clear the pond surface. We arrived, and a couple of other kids were already there skating. As dad slid around with the shovel clearing the snow, Berta and I shucked our boots and tied on our new skates. Roberta finished first, stood up and skated off with hardly a wobble. She moved with ease and skated around the pond. Then it was my turn. I stood up and whomp! Down I went. Up again, a step or two and whomp! Down I went. I was like an extra in a Laurel and Hardy movie – you know the guy with arms and legs flying all over the place before comically falling to the ground? That was me.

Roberta, of course, had figure skates, while I had hockey skates. The thinner blade of the hockey skates, combined with the lack of a toe pick was causing me problems. The fact I was always a bit clumsy as a kid didn’t help any either. Dad went back home, while Berta and I stayed at the pond. The morning went on and Roberta continued to skate beautifully. Me? I finally started to move and could skate across the pond, although turning and stopping were still a problem. Eventually, it was time to go home and get ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for Christmas Dinner. We changed from our skates back into our boots. Our feet were frozen blocks of ice and it was hard to walk at first.

Over the coming months, the weather stayed fairly cold and we skated many times. After school, we’d head to the pond, but on weekends dad took us to the slough from the Illinois River on the East Side, or downtown to the Illinois & Michigan Canal. The canal hadn’t been used for boat traffic in decades, and the city flooded one section to make a skating rink. My skating finally improved and I was able to join in with the pick-up hockey games going on. Roberta continued gliding effortlessly around the ice with the other girls. At the canal and the slough, there was an added bonus, as there was usually a fire built on the edge of the ice where you could warm up.

I remember skating at the slough and the canal that winter, and the fun we had with all the other kids. But my lasting memory was skating at Varland’s Pasture on Christmas Day. In my mind’s eye, I still can see my younger sister Roberta looking like Peggy Fleming gliding across the pond that morning. She sure didn’t need any protection that day.

Addendum:

Thanks to Roberta for contributing to this blog. She and I have almost exactly the same memory of that Christmas morning – her gliding off, and me stumbling all over the place. It’s actually eerie how identical our memories of the morning are. You’ll have to ask her if she was secretly laughing at her older brother….;-)

Peggy Fleming finished in 6th place in figure skating at the Innsbruck Olympics. Four years later, she would win gold at Grenoble, France. She was the only American to win a gold medal in ‘68.

The skates in the picture are Roberta’s from later in life. When she had her own children, she bought them skates one year for Christmas. She bought herself a pair as well. They currently hang on a nail in her garage

This graph shows the daily temperature readings in December ‘63. It really was quite cold. It looks like it warmed up a bit on Christmas Day.