There’s nothing quite like the sulfurous smell of a skating rink. It could be the off-gassing of the black floor that is set around the outside of the ice, Zamboni exhaust hanging in the air, perhaps the chemicals that get mixed with the frozen water, or the layered sweat of hockey and figure skaters. It’s a smell that goes home with you, heavy in your hair and clothes. It’s a smell that lingers on your hands after you’ve removed your gloves.
I drove to Vancouver the weekend before last. When I’m up there, I like to go skating. It’s not that we don’t have skating rinks around Seattle; we do, and I could easily go there. I don’t know those rinks, though. They don’t beckon me.
I grew up in the skating rinks around Vancouver, practicing figure eights, axels and waltz patterns. My first club was in Burnaby, where we lived. I went back and forth between the two city-owned rinks, four and five days a week, until they took the ice out for the summer. Then my mother drove me to the posh Hollyburn Country Club in West Vancouver or the Karen Magnussen arena—named for the Olympic medalist— in North Van. They were both long drives from our house, but they had summer school for skaters there. In September, I was the palest kid in school.
When my potential talent outgrew the capacity of my coach (at least in my mother’s eyes), I changed clubs, as skaters often do. Now Mum was driving me to Delta and its two rinks, and I picked up extra lessons at the Moody and Queen’s Park arenas in New Westminster. When practicing with my first ice dance partner, we skated in Coquitlam.
Competitions and tests were held all over the place, giving me familiarity with the frozen surfaces of the Chilliwack, Port Coquitlam, Surrey and Richmond arenas. When the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) went on strike and the rinks went dark, it was unthinkable to take a skating break, and so we drove to the University of B.C. campus. They had a rink there, too.
Another coach and club change occurred, and then I was skating in Vancouver proper. The Sunset Arena was right in the heart of Little India, and if I left the car windows down as we drove in, the waft of curry spices traveled up my nose (back then, I liked it only a little bit better than the rink smell). My mother found extra ice time for me at the Kerrisdale rink, but upon landing a jump, when I accidentally gashed open another girl’s shin with my skate blade, we didn’t go back. I never knew how her recovery went, because just down the road was the Arbutus Club.
The buildings were all different, but the smell was always the same.
My rink rat days were decades ago, but come back vividly every time I open my skate bag. I’ve never replaced the tan vinyl Adidas duffel that I first started using around 1978, even though it’s been to hell and back (all those rinks plus many more). It still has the same carpet remnant lining the bottom that my mother cut out to protect my skate blades from damage. The rag that I use to wipe my blades dry after a turn about the ice is from a red flannel nightgown: a growth spurt between third and fourth grades meant that it was relegated to the rag bin, and then my skate bag. It hasn’t been washed in 35 years. I’ve got smartly-patterned fleece blade covers now, but the three-ply Phentex-yarn covers that my mum knit are still floating around in the bag, too. And the skates? They are the same ones that took me to Nationals in 1984, the toe-pick dents in the soles left by my old partner. The skates have an odor all their own.
I did manage to go skating that last weekend, out in Richmond. It had been a while, and the legs were creaky. I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to reinforce the smells in my skate bag, though, so I could bring them home with me.
Yep, I could go skating at the rinks in Seattle, but I’m afraid that they would smell different.
Jo VonBargen says
Great story, Laura, smells and all!! Seems we have a National-level ice skater in our tribe. Who knew? What a wonderfully eclectic group we are!
Laura Zera says
Ha! We’ve all got these strange little things in our back pockets, don’t we? There are a lot of years lived, a lot of adventures between us all. xo
Molly Greene says
Laura, I love this post! SO wonderful to learn more about my friends and the experiences that formed them. Laugh and skate, girl, laugh and skate!
Laura Zera says
Thanks, Molly! Laugh and skate and try not to take a dive and hurt my no-longer flexy-bendy body… ha!
Terri says
Who knew ….great story.
Laura Zera says
And you thought I only liked hot places, hey? 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and reading, Terri. Appreciate your support very much.
Brenna says
I love your adidas bag! Thanks for sharing a great story.
Laura Zera says
All day I dream… remember that bit? LOL! Thanks for reading, Brenna.
David L Atkinson says
I have an old sports bag from my gym and running days but I daren’t open it for fear of what may be lurking in there!
Laura Zera says
Probably a wise move, David!
Lisa Buysse says
Laura, I had forgotten about your skating until I saw the skate bag. Great memories! I also had a flashback of us jumping on your bed and playing with your pup Mojo!
Laura Zera says
Thanks for stopping by, Lisa! I love having friends in my world with whom I share those long-ago memories. Ohhhh, Mojo. He was such dear little thing.
Christina Carson says
It was fun to learn of your past and once again travel around the cities I so came to love in the Lower Mainland. A very delightful description of days gone by.
Laura Zera says
Thanks, Christina. I bet a lot of those names rang with familiarity for you! I’m guessing that Alabama isn’t smattered with ice rinks the same way that the Lower Mainland is…
Christina Carson says
You have that right indeed!
Rolando says
Great post Laura. Many people enjoy surprising aspects of things or activities that others like for totally different reasons. One of the reasons I liked records was the smell of vinyl that would flow out when you opened a new one. This is not the case with CDs nowadays. Another reason I liked records is that I could tell whether the songs were “slow” or “fast” just from looking at the grooves in the wax. Our perception of things often go beyond the obvious senses involved.
Laura Zera says
So cool that you could tell song speed from the grooves! And with the sense of smell, it doesn’t even have to be a nice smell, but it can be a beloved smell. Thanks for stopping by, Rolando.
Louise Sorensen says
Wonderful! Memories are so strongly associated with smell. Thanks for sharing. : )
Laura Zera says
Yes, and I actually just yesterday taped a little sticky note with “See, Hear, Taste, Touch and Smell” to my computer so that I don’t forget to think about all of them as I write! Smell definitely triggers the most memories for me, though, with hearing close behind. Thanks for stopping by, Louise!
Virginia says
The skating! Yes – I remember the skating costumes and how your goal was the nationals! Sadly, we were at different schools & points in our lives when you did make the nationals.
Funny how despite living 2 blocks apart as kids, our social interactions were so limited!
On the up side, I do miss that cute fuzzy Mojo! Hehehe – it was neat that others had dogs with food names like “Muffin”& “Cocoa” and all I could come up with was “Max” ( it was after the million dollar dog form the long ago 6 Million Dollar Man series though). 🙂
Laura Zera says
Yes, the skating! Haaa! It’s going to figure largely in my memoir. There was a lot going on behind the scenes with my mum during those times.
At the time I chose to go to McPherson, I was kind of ‘running away’ from a few things and wanted a fresh start, but it did create a years-long disconnect with you and my other friends who I’d grown up with. I’m really happy that we’re back in touch!
Awww, Muffin. That was Lisa’s Cairn terrier. Now who had Cocoa? And Max is a *very* worthy name, given its origins! Mojo was a great little dog. He’s in my book, too. 🙂
Virginia says
the one good thing about FB, huh? Yes I’m grateful for the ability it provided for us to reconnect again!
As for Cocoa – Rosangela’s little toy poodle!
I guess I will always give my furbabies fairly human names! Considering I have a Charlie (you’ve met) & 2 black cats named Elvis & Conrad.
Christina James says
Multi-talented. You have opened a window on a world I know nothing about. I’m glad that you still skate and I’ll bet, in spite of your modest ‘creaky legs’, onlookers are wowed. *impressed*
Laura Zera says
Aw, thank you, Christina. Blushing a little bit over here. My figure skating career is actually a big part of my memoir manuscript.
Kendall Hunter says
Hey Laura – Just read this. Such a great piece. I have long lost my old ski bag but reading this immediately brought back the old familiar smells… ski boot linings can smell a lot like puppy’s paws (or popcorn, they’re interchangeable) and then there’s the smell of the peanut butter sandwich left in from the weekend before mixed with the snow-soaked gloves…. Ahhhh, thanks for bringing it back. As always, love your stuff. xo
Laura Zera says
Hey, Kendall, thanks! Puppy’s paws or popcorn; that makes me laugh.