Do kids skate anymore? Reminded by the opening scene of "A Charlie Brown Christmas".

When I was a kid here in Wisconsin in the early to mid '60s we went skating at the local park rink nearly every night. It was a social thing because you knew the other kids would be there. Our park rink shelter had a wood burning stove that was nice to warm near. Music playing outside on the speaker--all that great music from '64, '65, '66. Once we locked the old duffer rink attendant in the shelter house when the rink closed and he turned the lights off and on to get help.

Funny thing is that a dozen or so years later when I worked for the Park Department I had the rink at Hood Park, where I skated as a kid. Unfortunately by that time all the kids in the neighborhood had grown up and there were few skaters.

It was a more simple time back then when kids just went and did things on their own. After the Packer game was over we would all ride our bikes to the park to play football. In the warm weather we would show up and play softball, all on our own with no adults to organize and run everything. We'd argue about whether a ball was fair or foul, settle the matter, then get on with the game.

Even with all the things that kids have to do these days, I'm glad I grew up in the time I did.

my daughter goes most weeks. She is getting a new pair of skates for X-mas (I think).

It's not dead yet.

a rink in the suburbs.

and having fun on their own. I grew up in a safe small town and our parents pretty much let us have the run of it. This was a good thing. I think parents (and I include myself here) and too over-protective in a way, plus there seem to be so many more things out there that are problems. (not sure if this is actually true.)

Any city park that had a ball diamond had a rink. Today there are just a couple, one on each side of town, and they are used mostly for hockey, and they have shelters with central heating. I guess back in the day we commonly skated because there were no malls or computer games. Damn, I remember my feet freezing though.

I guess when I was a kid it was a time when kids, young teens, could go out and do things without adults and without worry of drugs, gangs, rape, or getting molested. We lived without fear of evil. Much of my adolescent life was about "the park"--going there to skate, play ball, just hang out. It was our neighborhood, where we lived and belonged.

because I live in Arizona. I'm sure there are skating rinks but I imagine there are few and far between.

I went skating once and fell on my ass every single time I tried to get up. So I never had a desire there.

Quite a few kids like to skateboard. So do a lot of young adults as well. That isn't dead. In fact it gained popularity in the area the last decade or so.

and you don't see kids walking around with ice skates over their shoulders on their way to the ice rinks. In my city there used to be a dozen ice rinks and now there are only a couple used mostly for hockey or for organized figure skating. Why? Because kids don't ice skate like they used to skate because there are so many other things going on, many other things that are organized and managed by adults and where an adult must drive them there in order so they can have fun.

As far as skateboarding goes, I can remember in 1964 pulling a roller skate apart and nailing the front and back to a board to make a skateboard along with the Jan and Dean song about Sidewalk Surfin'. My city has built a big outdoor skateboard park, but it's no good in the winter.

Once the weather got cold enough, my dad would stand out in the yard with a hose every evening after work until he had a nice little rink built for us kids. He'd skate too, because as a Canadian, he was raised on skates.

Thanks for reminding me of those good times!

Part of the high school gym class is a period of roller skating every year. The kids walk to the rink, skate for a while, and walk back a couple times a week for several weeks.

I've never been ice skating in my life, though. I guess I was more into the roller skating thing.

The Sculpture Garden's Fountain Rink is always packed.

Here in Ohio, we have a few rinks near us with better than decent attendance. Hockey's kind of big in NE Ohio. Not so sure about outdoor rinks or ponds, though.

Skating Rinks at the mall and at most of the high schools...hockey is a real big deal up here...during the summer my son has in line skates that he tools around the nieghborhoods when he isn't on his bike.

I had my picture taken by the local paper a couple of times while flooding with the big fire hose at night under the lights when we were first getting the ice established. That did look pretty cool with the clouds of water vapor billowing in the air and little kids asking if we were using hot water. Well it was maybe 40-50 degrees warmer than the surrounding air.

Today here most of the skating is organized or revolves around hockey. You don't see kids with ice skates over their shoulders because there just are not all the neighborhood rinks anymore.

That's where Charlie Brown takes place. I was surprised - I never knew anyone who skated really, growing up in Pennsylvania. But in Minnesota there are people who skate - they play hockey at least, which involved skating, so I'm guessing they skate elsewhere too. Never knew it was something people did until I had to live in Minnesota - really put things in perspective.

got out of bed at 4 am today to drag the 15 yr old to practice.

perhaps i should have said

yes, hockey ruins my life.

You couldn't have people trying to skate while others were hitting a hockey puck around. Speed skating used to be big back then as well compared to today.

They just flooded the field in the park near my house for a rink. It looks like it needs another coating to be skate-able though. Unfortunately, the "warming shelter" is never opened anymore because they can't afford to staff it.

My son's high-school gym class is meeting at the city's indoor rink for class two days a week too.

I figured I was one of the highest paid babysitters in town. Once my rink was established it would take me about a half hour to flood it each day to maintain it, then the rest of the day I just got to sit around. I'd bring my tv, a pizza maker and other food and just chill out for the day even when it was so cold that nobody skated because somebody had to be there. Then there would be those days in February when there would be a thaw and I'd be sitting outside the shelter's front door when it was 40 degrees to yell at anyone who thought to walk on the ice lake.

county arena which has open skate quite often. Lots of skating, lots of hockey. Good stuff.

the ice was frozen but there was no snow on them. People were skating on lakes all over the place.