Now that football is over, I find myself looking for other sports to watch on the weekend. For the last couple of weeks, I have watched figure skating competitions and shows. I especially liked a recent show with ice dancers and ballroom dancers. It made me think of dancing on roller skates.

When my children were in grade school, there were PTA skating parties. They were a family affair with husbands and wives accompanying their children for an enjoyable evening of skating. Of course, my children wanted to go because all of their friends were going. At the time, I was teaching at the school so I supported the PTA events. I took the children and I skated, too.

Because I could skate, a couple of the fathers had me out there dancing. I did not believe how well it went. I was overjoyed that I could actually dance moving forward and backward. I did not fall either.

Growing up, I had my own roller skates because I skated quite often. I skated at the rink at the fairgrounds nearly every weekend – sometimes Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. I mostly watched as the couples danced to the live organ music. On occasion, I was asked to dance with someone. I did all right as long as my partner was able to lead. It was fun.

The roller rink where the PTA skates were held was in downtown Russell, Pennsylvania. Russell is a small, rural community, with the largest share of the population in the outlying areas. At one time, the whole area was filled with dairy farms, but today there are only a few left. After a fire leveled the rink, the property was sold, and a beauty shop was built there.

Around the time of the PTA parties, there were also church youth skating nights. Our youth group participated. The children skated for a while then took a break for a devotional message from one of the pastors and some snacks. It was a popular event. The roller rink was full.

The Russell Roller Rink has been rebuilt in a different spot. When the grandchildren were younger they often attended birthday parties held there. My granddaughter had one of her early parties there. I think my daughter took in the cake and the pizza. None of the grandchildren were avid skaters and neither were their parents.

My love of skating was not limited to skating at a roller rink. I had a pair of sidewalk skates that were put on over my shoes. We often skated to school since I lived in town at the time. Once we arrived at school, we took our skates off and walked into the building. I’m sorry to say I never tried those in-line skates that were so popular.

Do you remember those skates that took a key to put them on? I put my key on a shoe lace and wore it around my neck so that I was able to tighten the skates if they needed it. You had to wear shoes that had a sole that stuck out a little, such as the familiar black-and-white saddle shoes that were the fashion of the day.

When I watched that skating dance show, the fashions coordinated with the numbers that they performed. One rock ‘n’ roll number had the girls wearing skirts with poodles sewn on them and skates that looked like saddle shoes. Of course, the other part of the deal was white bobby socks. Those costumes brought back so many memories.

The most recent memory was a surprise birthday party that my class of sixth-graders hosted for me. After lunch, the girls came into the classroom wearing poodle skirts that they made. Their mission was for me to teach them how to jitterbug. I told them I unfortunately never had a poodle skirt, but I did know how to jitterbug. We spent the last part of the day listening to ’60s music and dancing.

That class knew me well. I had also spent fourth grade with them. Before the year was up, they asked me if I would not like to move to the high school to teach English. I told them, unfortunately, my certification only qualified me for elementary school.

Ice skating was another passion of mine. I loved skating on the makeshift pond that was made on the school property by flooding a low-lying area. The “pond” was large, but the water was shallow. The area froze quickly. I am not sure who was in charge of things, but the powers that be had a fire going so that we could warm up by it. There was a small building with benches along the walls where we used to put on our skates. Recently someone posted a photo of the old skating area, and it revived my memories.

It did not cost anything to ice skate. All you had to do was show up with your skates and have fun. A co-worker of my mother gave me her ice skates. Unfortunately, they were hockey skates. I made do, but I asked for a pair of figure skates for Christmas.

The most important part about putting on ice skates was to get the laces tight enough to have good support for your ankles. I learned to skate on the hockey skates but could do even more once I had my figure skates. My teacher was my neighbor who was in his 90s at the time. Mr. Fors could really skate. It was good exercise, too. He took his role of mentoring me seriously. He told me to wrap my toes with newspaper so my feet would not get cold. He showed me how to get the laces tight enough and taught me how to balance. He showed me how to take long strides to move myself across the ice. He showed me how to get momentum moving backwards. He showed me how to skate in a backward circle.

My husband also had ice skates. He told me about using his skates on his family’s farm pond. The pond was gone by the time I was around here so we never got to go ice skating together.

Ann Swanson writes from her home in Russell, Pa. Contact at hickoryheights1@verizon.net