One of Seattle's many micro climates has blessed us with a reasonable
facsimile of a Midwestern skating pond near the North gate of Broadmore Country
club
in the Arboretum. I skated it last night and it is ready, if you don't mind
the crackle of thin ice under your skates. This little Lake Washington
enbayment has been Seattle's outlaw skating local since the Japanese current
shifted
and ended the deep freezes that made Green Lake skateble in the early 1900s.
My memory of the Arboretum skates go back to the 60s when some of the Totems
(the old Western Hockey minor league team) used to occasionally come out and
tear the place up. But the Arboretum is not without its controversy--police
enforcement activity waxes and wanes from year to year. Some years they let us
skate and other times the kick us off. The last few years have been "let 'em
skate" ones. And TV reporters, complete with camera crews, have been known to
show up for a dramatic on-location "Death Under the Ice" story. They always
fail to include footage of our safety rope and the fact that the water is only
waist deep. But a life lived completely free of police contact is not a full
life! Some people only meet the law on the highway. Others face down "the
man" for some great political cause. For me, it is the right to risk soaking my
feet, legs, and reproductive organs in ice water, that compels me to stand up
and speak truth to power. Bring your stick, we have some pucks. We have a
few ice skates too.