Ice Skating

As many of you know, tonight was the long awaited US Womens Figure Skating Championships.  It's no secret that ice skating (or figure skating) is not my favorite winter sport, so it is true that I am a little antagonistic toward the sport.  As I tried to quickly find the remote to change the channel, the thought occured to me:  Many years ago, who was walking on a frozen pond and thought to themselves, "I think I will fashion a metal blade that I can strap on to my shoes (or boots) and wobble on the ice instead of walking or sliding".  OK, so that was a bone-headed idea.  So the guy has his metal strapped onto his boot and a friend says, "I think I will try that too.  It looks really wobbly and hard on your ankles".  After time goes by, a larger number of people have a hunk of metal of their boots so they can "SKATE" on the ice.  So for years, people are wobbling in their homemade boots made from the skin of the cow that they had for dinner that night.  They attach a metal blade to the bottom that they have fashioned using the hammer and anvil that they use to form their horseshoes in their stables.  Then they use an old piece of rope to strap it onto the boot.  I'm sure it wasn't a real sturdy ride!  Soooooo,  one day, one old man says, " this is getting boring, I think I will try to do a spin."  Not to be outdone, his friend says "I will do a jump!".  I am sure they both broke a limb, or sprained something, so the next year when the pond was frozen over, they tried again.  This time they decided to give them names.  "I am going to do a spin and call this one a 'lutz'."  The friend says, "I am going to do a jump that better than that, I will take off going backwards, and call it an 'axel'."  Then Mr. Ulrich Salcow has gathering his cows to be milked when he saw the two men and joined in creating another jump that he named after himself, the 'salcow'.  And I guess you could say the rest is history.  As we all know, many years later, this man had a great-great-great-great grandson who was a very small man named Scotty Hamilton.  He followed in his ancestors 'skate'steps and continued that tradition of what is known to day as 'figure skating'.  

I don't know about you, but I just wonder how boring it must have been back in the old days that somebody actually thought to put a hunk of metal on their boots and it could evolve into something that is so freaking weird.  It's one thing to dance, but to dance on ice?  I don't know....it's just odd to me.

Don't get me wrong, in the 7th-9th grade, I was a BIG fan of the ice skating!  Thank goodness for ice skating, or I wouldn't have had my PE credits! (and my paper route to help pay for the ice skating!).  Just another perk of being the oldest--I got to pay for my own ice skating gym class!!!

That's the way I see it!

(notice the title of this image..."The Timid Pupil"---well off course she's timid, it's freaking idiotic!)