Perhaps because we here on the east coast have had a bit of a cold spell lately. Perhaps because the heating system in our old house went down a few months ago (and cannot be repaired til summer, leaving us with a patchwork of space heaters, leaving me endlessly bone-chilled, cold pounded, fractured), I keep thinking about my early days on ice skating rinks.
This was after I'd taught myself to skate on Boston ponds. After I'd told my parents that I wanted nothing more than blades and ice beneath my feet, that I might die if I didn't have this, that I might not grow up to be me. After Robyn Rock, the skating sensation of the Wilmington, DE, rink, came out one day during a public skate session (this being a few months post-Boston) and taught me to waltz jump for real, to rightly spin. This was after that, when I was skating early morning, late afternoon, most every day. It's those days that I've been thinking about lately.
Days when the cold was something I sought, I craved, when I craved that music playing. I wanted to float—forever, always. I wanted to leap and never land.
There are few photographs of me as a child. There are just a handful of me on skates. I have in my possession two. It seems right that they are imprecise, blurred through.
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By: Beth Kephart ,
on 1/21/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: UNDERCOVER, ice skating, Philadelphia Humane Society, Robyn Rock, Add a tag
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By: Beth Kephart ,
on 1/21/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: UNDERCOVER, ice skating, Philadelphia Humane Society, Robyn Rock, Add a tag
5 Comments on The Blur of Childhood, last added: 1/22/2009
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"I wanted to leap and never land." Your blog is poetry in itself. Ah, an amazing line.
I'm so happy you have this photo to share!
I just read your author bio for Undercover last night as I brought it down from E's room. I hadn't known you were such an accomplished skater. This is all the perfect doorway into your book. :-)
It was fun to find this photo (by accident) yesterday.
Sherry, I leaped high, loved footwork, was rather fearless, loved choreography most of all. But some of my spins were wild.
This photo is a treasure! I just love it...
Anyone who can jump on ice skates is a superhero in my book.
XO
Anna