I grew up in Buffalo, NY, a border-town. It shared a cultural and climate proximity and connection with our English speaking Canadian cousins. Border crossings in those times were frequent and uncomplicated. Our American and Canadian communities were almost indistinguishable.
One significant commonality in our relationships was ice. We not only suffered ice, we made the most of it. Hockey, Figure Skating, Curling, and Ice Dancing were prominent in those sharing’s. When I was little, the Buffalo Bison’s, our professional hockey team, played its games in the Fort Erie, Ontario arena. We had no such venue in the city until October 1940.
I was one of the original amateur hockey players to play in what was then named the Memorial Auditorium. As amateurs, we played against all nearby hockey teams, Canadian included. They were mostly better than us, as hockey is to the Canadian as Football to the American, but we did manage to win more than just a few games. As you know, hockey is fast moving, rough, and combative. Sticks are used and most hockey players have missing teeth. I loved it, and it was the only game that I could play with some degree of skill. I was skating when I was four years old.
At the same time as I was playing hockey at the Memorial Auditorium, my future wife was learning figure skating with the Buffalo Skating Club. They practiced at a hockey rink ow
ned and maintained by a private school. She had dreams of being a professional figure skater, the likes of an Olympic Champion named Sonia Henie. It so happened that Jean was very good, and so enthused that she tried (unsuccessfully) to convince her father she had a future in the Ice Follies.
When we began dating and long before our engagement, she noticed a deep-seated flaw in my make-up. As any woman worth her salt would do, she embarked on a program of remediation. You know all about that doing it “for one’s own good” process.
It came about early in our relationship. My first “make an impression” date with Jean was to a dance being held on Buffalo’s Lake Erie, entertainment ship and cruiser – the Canadiana. A fairly large passenger ship with a dance floor, several decks and lounges. that was used primarily to transport people from Buffalo to nearby Crystal Beach, Ontario where a huge amusement park and dance hall was located. Crystal Beach was Buffalo’s version of Coney Island.
The sea was a little choppy that night, and offered me a great cover alibi for my complete ineptitude as a dancer. I was stepping all over her feet in my clumsy and awkward efforts. I was not impressing her in a positive manner, but the choppy seas let me get by with it on this occasion. Enough to let me take her to another dance.
Not on a rocking boat this time. As I stepped on her toes this time she looked up at me and said: “we ain’t on a boat this time sweetie!” I was busted. The moment of truth had arrived and I was thus destined for the reform school, if I wanted that relationship to continue. At the least, on a dancing basis. It was not long after that disaster that she suggested we learn to dance together. Not altogether on her terms, but as I came to realize many years later, on neutral ground.
Not ground, in this case, but ice. A place where we both had a degree of competence. Her wisdom was diplomacy personified. And, as I came to later understand, if she were to be running things, conflicting views and styles would be conquered by laughter and comradery. She not only had wisdom, she had determination. It was going to get done…
My first lesson in that wisdom dawned on me when I realized she wanted to teach me figure skating. When she mentioned it to me, I reacted in my typically denialistic manner, so much a part of my error-prone behavior: “ Hockey players don’t figure skate, Figure skating is for sissies.” Undaunted, she went to Canada and rented the Ft. Erie for (at that time a very low price of $4.00) an hour. And, in the bargain, she saw to it that I acquired a pair of figure skates. By that time in our courtship, she had grown on me so much that my resistance was way overcome by my desire to please her, and keep her pleased. Anyway, away to Ft. Erie we went and I, within that hour of private practice, was doing figure 8’s and all kinds of other sharp edged figures.
Fast forward ten years to around 1960. Married, three kids, another to come soon, and living in the friendly suburb of Williamsville. Struggling, but able to indulge in some recreational activities that appealed to us, we joined the Buffalo Curling and Skating Club. Reunited on ice again.
Not big time into Curling, but very desirous of sharing challenging ice based activities through long boring Western New York winters. Not only our sharing, but providing same for our young children – a family deal. Our main family recreational efforts focused on Skating. The children took to figure skating as there were many other families in the club whose children felt likewise. It was a social and exercise outlet for all.
As we, as a family, were enjoying skating at the club, a new opportunity came into view there. They had just brought in three Canadian professional skaters, and were beginning a series of figure and ice dancing skating opportunities.