Nancy's Skates

In Grade 5, a really cosmopolitan girl moved to our town. She had lived in Bigger Town where they had Job's daughters and Rotary. Her house was always a disaster but well stocked with boxes of Old Dutch Ripple Chips and dill pickle dip. Nancy liked to do things and her Bigger Town ideas completely turned our class upside down. She was the first to wear Lee Rider jeans with the leather brand strip in the back and to know when the Beatles would be on Ed Sullivan.

Nancy loved to go skating too. I'd go with her to the rink where Darcy and some of the other boys would torment us girls tugging on our scarves or stopping abruptly spraying ice all over our faces. Nancy had taken skating lessons Somewhere Else and could twirl and do figure 8's. I would slid around on the ice twisting my boots pretending I was the new version of Barbara Ann Scott but would most often fall. I longed for skates but there just wasn't any money for such frivilous things let alone lessons. Still, I thought of little else that Christmas. Christmas Eve after we came home from church and had eaten the traditional cabbage rolls, we opened presents. There behind the tree was a hopeful looking box if I ever saw one. I jiggled and squealed in delight for I knew by the weight and size and just the right jostle that these were the long coveted skates. My mother looked at me the whole time I opened the box to find...Nancy's skates. Yup. My mother had polished them. She had bought some new laces and skate guards but they were still Nancy's skates with its tell tale spot Nancy had worn as she learned to drag her foot. I remember the hot tears that filled my eyes and that suffocating disappointment that I could never have anything new of my own as I was the third child. And lucky Nancy had brand new skates.

Boxing Day, Nancy called to invite me to skate at the rink. Sure Nancy, rub it in. But she wasn't that kind of a girl and I wasn't one to pout long nor miss on the fun. We skated the best part of the day and as we walked home - well Nancy limped because of the angry blisters formed from her brand new skates - I was thankful for a resourceful mother. Nancy's used skates brought years of enjoyment and never once did I have a blister or sore feet. Those skates disappeared in one of the many moves I made in my 20s. I have some new brand new skates that blister my feet every time I use them. Oh to have Nancy's skates again.

Merry Christmas and may the Saviour's promise of Peace On Earth be yours tonight.