Carving Their Way Across Hawley Pond, Skaters Enjoy The Cold

It is hard at times, but fun.

Good practice for those who are serious, and slippery to the inexperienced, ice skating at Hawley Pond gives passersby a perfect view of who knows how to skate, and who is just learning.

 Some on foot, most on skates — or getting back up — and even one on a skateboard, clusters of friends and teammates practiced their hockey moves or simply regaining their balance Tuesday afternoon. Promising to keep the thick ice frozen, the forecast earlier this week called for freezing rain and snow that would drop the gray and white shades of winter on the town. Tightening their laces and getting a better grip on hockey sticks, P.J. Hickey, his brother Andrew, and friend Dean Baye moved a puck in widening, then tightening, arcs. Laying down their paths through the ice like careful cursive handwriting, they boys’ bladed feet turned curves and lines across the ice to describe a favorite cold weather pastime.

“This is what we do for the winter,” Andrew said. They seize snow days and weekends for time on their skates. “Whenever we can,” he said.

With feet scrambling to keep atop his skateboard, Tim Pierce made the ice even more difficult to navigate Tuesday. “I have ice skates, but I like the skateboard,” he said, although admitting, “It’s hard.” Next to his friend Tim, P.J. batted a hockey puck. “I have played before,” he said. Although not part of a league, “It’s a hobby, I love it,” he said. Dean was also swishing his hockey stick side-to-side. “I am having fun,” he said, looking across the ice at a pickup game of young men in high school who had a game going.

Minutes later after their runs on the goal were over, Rick Gallucci, a senior, rested on the side. Catching his breath, he said, “I love the pond.” He and a group of friends were out for practice. In coming months they want to start up a league. Soon they were back on the ice.

As if in a snow globe and moving quietly within the boundaries of a circular shore, the younger friends again added their leisurely movements to the frozen surface. Opposite their corner were more skaters on the pond for the first time this season.

As their mother watched carefully, brother and sister Colton and Lacey Hein laughed as they lost their footing and tumbled across the frozen, snow-covered pond where bubbles were stopped in place several inches down. Over their shoulders ice skaters glided past as Lacey and her brother laughed, fell, stood up and brushed off. Were they getting any skating in? “I spend more time skating, and he spends more time falling,” Lacey joked. Anticipating a coming snow day off from school Wednesday, which eventually turned to a frigid rain, Colton declared, “It was fun.”