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Take to the Ice

© Eugenia E. Gratto

It's amazing how benign ice looks on television. Pixie-like figure skaters collapse onto it, then bounce right back up, arms spread wide, mouths smiling, only a hint of shock or pain in their eyes. Hockey players send each other flying along it, then get right back up and dig at the ice with their blades, picking up speed until they're whizzing around behind the opposite goal.

But at the Pentagon Row Ice Skating Rink, the white stuff is a little harder to tame.

"People are going too fast!" shrieks a small girl in a brown puffy parka. "I'm going to fall!"

And sure enough, she does, her feet sliding out from under her just as she gets to the boards. She lands, hard, on her butt and side, her hands still outstretched as they were as she approached the railing she was so desperately grabbing for.

But this does not end in tragedy. She pops right back up, swiping the ice residue from her pants and coat with a laugh, then moving, stiff-legged, back into the traffic that circles the rink.

Around her, a man darts smoothly—a combination of movements one rarely sees on a non-hockey rink. He comes to the rink every night, after work, and practices hockey maneuvers, skating low and fast, changing directions quickly. Unlike the high school boys who come in groups to rent hockey skates and show off for the giggling girls skating around the rink, this guy is not there to socialize. In fact, he clearly doesn't care whether anyone notices him at all. He's there to get in some practice time, and the kids who crash in front of him are just more obstacles for him to glide around.

There are a few here who may dream of being the next Michelle Kwan or Sarah Hughes, but not many who show that kind of promise. This is a small rink, nestled amidst apartments, restaurants and shops. It's an icy oasis in the middle of an urban landscape, a place to glide around, avoiding those who spill from their feet and onto the ice.

And it's a place to look up at the people riding exercise machines in the Bally's above the plaza and say, "Look. Here I am. Exercising. But I'm having a hell of a lot more fun than you."

There are just a few more weeks left before area outdoor rinks will close for spring. But in the meantime, after an unusually warm month, winter is back with a vengeance. Take to the ice while you still can.