ON ICE: “When I saw where they were opening the present-day ice
rink, it brought back a lot of memories of my ice skating. Starting
in mid-1930 when Tuna Creek would freeze over, we put on clamp-on
skates and skated up and down the creek and that started my ice
skating.”

So writes Carl Lindahl from Bradford who remembers, too, when
they flooded a part of the football field but only for a single
year because it caused so much damage to the playing surface. From
then on, they flooded the parking lot above the field — before the
lot was paved.

“From that time, we skated on the ice ponds located where the
Callahan pool is located and the present-day rink is now. Ice ponds
— they were manmade ponds to collect the ice after it was close to
8-inches thick.

“It was sawed by hand into blocks about 100 pounds each. We
skated on these ponds, played hockey and also played ‘crack the
whip.’ The last person on the end of the line usually ended up and
over end in the snow bank. Our personal game was after the ice was
cut and pulled out, to jump over the water until it got too large
to jump or someone got their feet wet. These large blocks were
pulled by a horse over to the ice house and stored for the summer
delivery to homes for their ice boxes for the cooling of food in
the summer.

“Then later, the city flooded the old race track at the end of
Congress Street where now the Zippo plant is located. This was
quite large and a good rink to skate on. When the ice was thick
enough, we also skated on Brook Lake. 

“I also had a chance to skate on a flooded tennis court at the
foot of Rew Hill owned by the Carl Smith family. It was flooded
every night by Henry Vreeland, and the next night when the lights
were turned on, it looked like a giant mirror and just as
smooth.

“It was at this rink that a certain girl caught my eye, so spent
more time at this rink. After World War II ended, I married this
girl and spent the next 62 years married to this wonderful girl
until her death in 2008.

“Over my lifetime have skated, I think, where Tops parking lot
is, Hanley park, Graham’s pond on Seaward Avenue, Salamanca and
Willow Dale Cemetery pond. The Tierneys were trying to get children
to dance to the music they brought.”