When I was a child I imagined being a world famous roller skater.

I was born in a city but my father’s job took us to a small town when I was 4. The school I attended was a mile away but by the time I was 7 there was a new school nearer to our house.

The new school allowed us to play in the school grounds after school hours and because it was just along the road I used to go there every evening after I had finished my homework and skate on the concrete patch outside the classrooms.

I loved skating. I dreamt I was wearing a bright purple skating dress. Purple was my favorite color then and still is. I did not wear a fancy skating costume, I did not even have fancy skates. I wore my ordinary playing around in clothes. This was the 1950’s and jeans had not yet arrived so my cotton shorts had to suffice. Luckily I did not fall over very often or I would have had skinned knees and arms. I loved the freedom of movement I had when I skated and I was able to go so fast.

Surprisingly I was the only one out of all my friends who did not break a bone of some sort while skating. Everyone else seemed to break an arm or wrist or something. My brother broke his leg while jumping over a fence – well he was trying to show how high he could jump but unfortunately he slipped on takeoff and landed on top of the fence instead of over it, nothing to do with roller skating but I just thought I would mention it. But me, never. I was so unlucky, or so I felt. I did not manage to break anything. I also never managed to sew my finger in the electric sewing machine like a few of my friends did. One year during the school holidays I got a sore wrist and the doctor put a half splint on it. We had no idea what caused it but it was probably in sympathy with my friends and their broken arms. I was not able to use it much for the entire holiday period so I learnt to use my left hand instead. I can still use it for some things even now.

At the end of my final year at junior school I was picked to be part of a team to do a display for “parents day” and we did a maypole dance around a basketball hoop. Oh how I loved it. Fast, synchronized skating. I guess it was actually figure skating but we certainly did not do any of the fancy lifting and jumping that professionals do. We were very definitely amateurs. Actually we were just kids. But we felt so special.

I went to live in Fiji after that and did no more skating at all. There were other things to do there that were much more important and I was also growing up.

In later years I really enjoyed  watching Torvil and Dean, champion ice skaters from UK when they did the Bolero. Absolutely magic. One year I managed to see Scott Hamilton doing his stuff. Fantastic. That was the limit of my involvement in any form of skating - watching TV, but I still enjoy it and wish I had done something about pursuing it when I was younger instead of letting it go.

I have never had access to an ice skating rink so have not tried ice skating at all. I imagine it would be fairly similar to roller skating but probably a bit harder because of the sharpness of the blades.

Roller skating is not practised  quite so much nowadays, it is more roller blading. Having the wheels in a straight line must make it much easier to do fancy footwork. In my day we had four wheels, and not very good quality wheels like they have today either. Ice skates and ice hockey skates have not changed in looks much but have certainly changed in quality.

The skating costumes  these days are so beautiful. Soft flowing swirls of material floating in the breeze. How they do not get their dresses caught in their skates I will never know. It looks so difficult to me.

Ice hockey – well there is something incredible. How on earth do those people change direction at the drop of a hat and stop so quickly without doing themselves a real injury?

Roller skating, ice skating, ice hockey, ice basketball, whatever you choose to do, they are wonderful sports and really keep you fit. I’m well “past it” now and will never fulfill my dream of being famous in anything. All I can do is sit and watch the others while they make it look so easy. The clothes they wear –oh boy, aren’t they wonderful. Figure skating dresses in particular.

Such flights of fancy that really tantalize the senses. Skating clothinghas changed a lot over the years. Figure skating costumes must be dreamt up by a fairy or something. They just float in the breeze like candy floss.

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