Winter is here, and once I’m done with the required seasonal illnesses, I’m going to be a sledding, skiing, hiking, snowshoeing, ice skating maniac. I would even snowmobile if it was possible. Okay maybe not. But I really wish we could still ice skate on the various ponds and “lakes” in Pittsburgh’s parks…
Highland Park’s Carnegie Lake: summer / winter
Schenley Park’s Panther Hollow Lake: summer / winter
At least we have an extra place to skate this year because of the Winter Classic. Not that I’m even a habitual ice skater! I do like the romance of it, though. Which is why I can’t NOT post this video, even though I will probably regret it later. (Do you ever find videos and feel compelled to post them just because someone took the insane amount of time to make them?)
[Youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDGJfJ1wP8k”%5D
So I’m hoping this year will be the year that I try ice skating one more time, and succeed in staying on the ice for longer than 15 minutes before giving up! If that doesn’t work, at least it’s still fun to drink hot chocolate and watch other people fall down.
In my search for historic ice skating images, I stumbled across this article about the Schenley Park Casino, which is one of those Pittsburgh things that aren’t there anymore (as Sebak would say…yet he never featured anything this cool in his movies). It burned down within 2 years of opening. It seems, though, that this may have been the site of Pittsburgh’s introduction to hockey!
The following day The Pittsburgh Press had this account: “Between 2,500 and 3,000 (despite bad weather) showed how hockey and ice polo should be played when business is meant. Before 9 o’clock the boys lined up and gave an exhibition of hockey. This game has never before been seen in Pittsburgh, and it was a revelation. The Casino players, in truth, didn’t know just what to do with that little flat “puck” used in hockey. They didn’t know whether it was good to eat or whether it was a holiday toy. No account was kept of the hockey score, but the crowd marveled at the work of the visitors.”
Happy holidays, and GO PENS
tricia burmeister 