First of all, the picture of the "rotary" phone is HILARIOUS!!!

Next, A LIVE ORGANIST! Get out of here! WOW!!!

Finally,

I remember...watching John Curray practice up in the old Sky Rink in NYC...he was a brilliantly-beautiful skater, and sorely missed.

Who remembers what floor the old Sky Rink was on? Was it the 33rd Floor?

Sky Rink (when it was in the sky) was on 33rd Street, between 9th & 10th.
I believe it was the 16th floor of the Lerner Building.

I always skated during lunch times, rushing in and out, so I didn't get to meet many people there.

But, I do remember John Curry. Always friendly and polite; what a skater!
Who was the big-name coach that was there?

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Ah, man!!! I wish I had seen him then too! He's over here in the Bay Area now teaching at 3 different rinks (none of which are my rinks! ) and he's ALWAYS booked!!! I had him as a secondary coach once when I was working near one of his rinks. Had to stop taking from him when I ended up at another job where even though it was one of his rinks that he was quite booked with students there!

Funny thing... when I first saw met Charlie, I saw this strong big guy coming into a crowded FS session. I immediately thought "What's this hockey coach doing skating in a FS session?" Had to look down at the skates to figure out that he had on black figure skates. Then at another session, I was introduced to him by one of his students b/c I wanted to see if I could take a lesson with him. Yup! Same "hockey coach" guy!!!

I miss taking lessons with him! He was fun to take lessons with! And no fluff! He's a man's man, but still very kind and nice! (Which appeals to me a lot!) And no, he won't teach at our rink b/c 1) he's gonna be highly in demand and 2) he hates the parking around our rink (i.e. street parking and you have to move your car about every hour...)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

South Mountain Arena in NJ had an organ and an organist during the general sessions. Very nice atmosphere, but man, they ran their publics military-style. No camels or laybacks. No jumps. None whatsoever, or the manager skated over to "talk to you."

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Does Skating Club of Boston still have a live organist for WILD Tuesday evening public sessions??

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Ok I get it. But Im down here and she is up in Sun Vally and I seriously dought that a former Olympic Star ( and hot babe) would want to date me. However, I will look at the web site you all provided..
I will tell you the last back flip I did was a lot of years ago and asking Linda Frat out on a date is a lot more scary..that woman could have any man she wants. and Im really not in a position to date anyone right now and flying to Sun Vally is a financial no no at the moment... Ill look at the site though.. I can dream can't I......he he

OK Crew

I went to the site on Linda Frat and on a serious side I will tell you this.
I had the pleasure of skating with Linda in Disney on Ice in the late 80's.
She was not only beautiful to watch but was a gracious and wonderful person to talk too.
I got to know her and admired her great achievments in her career, and all of sudden I was in a show with my favorite star. It was a great pleasure to skate in this show with Linda even though I was just a chorus boy and part time funny man..

If you should ever visit this site Linda I want you to know it was an great pleasure to skate with you and I will always remember that as one of my fondest memories ..

Thank you..

I remember the first time I was about to get on the ice and I was too scared. But finally I got on, and everything fell into place (bad word choice lol)

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Salchow Chick
We Love You Sashie!

Isk8NYC,

I remember...the big name coaches at Sky Rink were the Dunfields.

The Mountain Cup adult competition in France still has a figures competition, and early morning 'patch' practice sessions for a few days prior to the event. I love the quiet hush of the patch session at 6:30 am.....

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

I skated to a live organist as recently as last summer - there are still one or two floating around here in the UK offering their services at social dance events.

I can finally inch my way round a serpentine - I tried, last week - but what puts me off having a go at the baby figures competition (and indubitably coming last, but I don't give a you-know-what about that) is the fact that it starts at 07:00! And being on the ice for about 06:00 two days running (because we usually take an early practice session on the Saturday morning) is not my idea of fun!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I skate at two of the rinks where Charlie Tickner teaches.. and he's WONDERFUL to watch.. especially when he's teaching/demonstrating footwork. I think we could charge money just to watch him do footwork during the sessions. It's also really sweet to watch him work with the younger (4-6 year old) kids who have NO idea who Charlie is. To them he's just this coach in black skates and a red & grey jacket (which he's had at least 12 years. His students should buy him a new jacket for Christmas one year.).

I remember at 2004 AN in Lake Placid (first time he had returned since the 1980 Olympics!) and skated in the Exhibition. He received a standing ovation.. just for getting on the ice. He was really touched by that and talked about it for weeks afterwards.

My fondest Charlie memory is when I had been skating about 3 months and was working on forward crossovers. I took lessons in a rink mall that was buried under the parking garage and was often empty during the middle of the afternoon on the day I practiced. One of the days I had the rink to myself this guy walks in, whistling. He put on his skates came onto the ice and skated two incredibly FAST laps.. which scared me to death. So I retreated to a corner to work on forward crossovers.. you know the kind where you pick up your foot up WAY too high and carefully set it down not quite crossed over and with no rhythm? When he did his third lap, Charlie stopped right behind me (no big swooshing hockey stop, either) and said "Do you want some help with those?" I had NO idea who this guy was, but obviously he knew what he was doing so I squeaked out "ok". He showed me how my knee didn't have to go quite so high and if I did it rhythmically it would work better and how to lean and where to put my arms on the circle, you know, all the basics (stuff I'm sure my coach had told me.. but I hadn't remembered). I was feeling a little bit better about maybe someday being able to do crossovers and thanked him. He just smiled and skated off and went to work on whatever he was there to work on.. and my coach comes in and says "So, now you've thrown me over for a World Champion?" I looked at her like she'd sprouted horns and said "Huh?" She said "That was the 1978 World Champion.. 1980 Olympic Bronze medalist." I was STUNNED! Turns out he grew up (as in "little kid") near the neighborhood where the rink was, and was in town for a week to visit his Dad.. and needed to practice for a show he was going to be in later that month.

I don't think he remembers any of that.. but I'll NEVER forget it. And now I see him twice a week.. and he's just "one of the skaters/coaches" at the rink. A really NORMAL guy.. aside from the fact that most coaches of his former competitive status don't coach at several rinks in an 80-miles radius-- and rides his motorcycle to get to them all so he doesn't have to sit in Bay Area traffic!

I always wonder what it would be like to skate to live music. However, whenever I start to think of what skating to an organ might be like I can't help but remember that one episode of The Simpsons when Bart tricked the church organist into playing "In the Garden of Eden" in the middle of Sunday mass.

when was this? that would have been a sight to see i started skating there around 96

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Tim David's Website

I did once at Canada - this small town, I forgot... It was the New Year's Eve of 1999. They had this rock band that was playing during the general session. The manager asked me to do a number at 10:30 with the other skaters. I of course said sure. I was so scared in terms of not knowing what song they were going to play. The pieces they played I never even heard of. I did my number and it felt like forever Thankfully I landed two 2salchows and one 2Loop. It was fun I guess. All my relatives and friends got to see me skate finally.

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Tim David's Website

I remember watching Robin Cousins in 1980 when I was around 6 years old and thinking to myself 'I will skate like that one day and have my own boots' little was I to know it would take 26 years for me to learn to skate and own my own blades.

I also remember those olympics in 1980 and being totally engrosed with all the ice skating and when the event finished I cried my heart out becuase my dad said it would be another 4 years before I would see it again.

Andrea xx

In the 1980's, when there was only one rink at that arena. I'm showing my age, although I was an adult at the time. I believe the organ was in the far corner from the rink front entrance, upstairs. We really didn't notice that the organist was live, just that the music was circus-like.

When DH and I graduated with our MBA's, our college rented Radio City Music Hall for the ceremony. We brought our then-3-year old DD. Down on the right side near the stage, they have a huge pipe organ that slides out on it's own platform. The school hired the organist and he played songs from movies and musicals - especially Disney songs. DD loved it!

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Peter and Sonja Dunfield

Nope, that's not who I'm thinking of; who was Curry's coach?

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Curry initially worked with Arnold Gerschwiler, but then worked with Gus Lussi and Carlo Fassi (who coached him when he won Euros/Olys/Worlds in '76).

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

I'm thinking of Gus Lussi. (I was scared of him, btw.) Thanks, it was bugging me that I couldn't remember the name.

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I had no idea that Gus Lussi taught at Sky Rink? When was he there? Wow! I had no idea.

I have this beautiful book published in 1978, a pictorial biography of John Curry written in his voice, with over 200 pages of text and photos:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...&condition=all

When he was 20 ('71) and impoverished, living in a bedsitter in London without a shilling for the gas meter, he applied for a loan to study with Peter Dunfield in NY for 6 weeks. He had a difficult time with the harsh criticisms and became very homesick for Birmingham...

In '73 he sought Slava Kahout, trainer of Janet Lynn, who directed him to Gus Lussi in Lake Placid and Carlo Fassi in Colorado.

It is such a wonderful read. He was so honest and modest, and the photos are stunning!

I remember ...when ladies everywhere wanted their hair cut like Dorothy Hamill.

Except me... whose parents' think the Hamill haircut is the same as the "Chinese little girl" or "bowl" cut. (i.e. put a bowl on the head, cut around the bowl.) I wanted the Farrah Fawcett look instead...

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!