Black Ice

One of our favorite winter sports was ice hockey. I remember being packed in the back of large pick up trick fully dressed for the sub freezing temperatures, but not especially enjoying the wind chill from the open air ride. We were headed to Silver Lake (?) outside of Pittsfield, which we did frequently. Our experience told us to bring shovels. We spent the first hour clearing the snow off of the frozen lake, before we could get down to serious fun. A few times we arrived to find the lake frozen over, but with very little snow on it. I remember sailing across the lake on our ice skates with our backs to a stiff wind. All you had to do was stand up straight and hold out your hands (think of Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet on the bow of the Titantic — you get the idea). It was quite a ride, but it took all of our strength to skate up wind to get back to the truck.

Once, when we got to the lake, we found it frozen solid, with absolutely no snow on it. It had frozen in absolute stillness. The surface was as smooth as glass, and unfortunately, as clear as glass. Black ice. Near the shallow end of the lake you could easily see the bottom and all of the sea weed frozen in place. It was a very distracting surface as you stared down at a black hockey puck. It was also unnerving as your mind began to question whether the lake was frozen enough to skate on. It was. I don’t remember if we won or lost the hockey game that day, but I’ll never forget the Black Ice.