My favorite New York winter memory is ice skating in Wollman’s Rink in Central Park when it was an affordable place for families to take their children. In the 1960’s, if you were able to be there before 8 AM on Sunday, admission was free and after 8 AM admission was ten cents. Almost every Sunday during the winter when the skating rink was open my mother and I rode the bus to Fifth Avenue and walked through the park to the rink. It was always so quiet – this was a time when all of the stores were closed on Sundays so the streets were deserted – the only people that you saw were also going to the park. Many times my mother didn’t want to spend the extra ten cents because she didn’t skate so she’d sit outside and watch me. Many of my classmates lived very close to the park so there were always some people there that I knew but it was never crowded. There was also a small cafeteria inside and they had the best cocoa! There was also a pond in Central Park alongside the path to get to the skating rink. When it froze over there was a sign that skating was permitted but for most of us city kids it was too dangerous to consider.
These days Wollman’s Rink is much higher priced but now there is a free rink at Bryant Park behind the Public Library which lets everyone experience ice skating in New York City – but that wonderful feeling of quiet and solitude isn’t there the way that it was.
