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In anticipation of Canada’s sesquicentennial celebrations, the Citizen’s Bruce Deachman has been out in search of Ottawans — 150 of them — to learn their stories of life and death, hope and love, the extraordinary and the everyday. We’ll share one person’s story every day until Canada Day.
“I love this return to cold weather, because it’s been a really frustrating winter so far. A lot of snow but very little in the way of cold temperatures. But I’m in my element now; I love this weather.
“I used to do this about 30 years ago. At one time I think I had seven rinks. I was originally a city employee with the winter program, and then I switched to become an operator on a contract basis through the associations. I had a little rink empire going at one point. It was pretty challenging with seven rinks. There were no cellphones in those days. I had my brother working for me full time, but it was difficult because you couldn’t communicate with each other.
“Anyway, that’s what I did at one point, and then I became an international teacher, in South America and the Middle East. Now I’m retired — for close to 10 years now — and I wanted to keep in shape. I always lose about 10 pounds doing the rinks.
“I just do two rinks now, here and Lincoln Heights, on Regina. I don’t know how I ever did seven.
“I enjoy getting out here in the sunshine. I love working in the morning, rather than at night, because of the sun. It’s very peaceful, and it’s satisfying when you get a nice, smooth surface. And some days if you’re out here really early you get the steam coming off, through the sunshine. It’s almost like a Zen moment. It’s very relaxing.
“This rink I also enjoy because there’s a learning disabilities school that’s close by, and they use it almost three times a week. They love coming over here. They don’t have a playground, so they love to use the rink. So I often keep it going into March if I can. There are a couple of other schools that use it, and the association has their winter carnival every year, and a lot of people come to that.
“But there’s something distinctly Canadian to this, especially when it’s 35 below, and it’s hard to stop once it’s in your blood. I have a girlfriend in Colombia, and her nickname for me is The Penguin.”
— Rob Graham. Frank Ryan Park, Feb. 2, 2017.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
“I love this return to cold weather, because it’s been a really frustrating winter so far. A lot of snow but very little in the way of cold temperatures. But I’m in my element now; I love this weather.
“I used to do this about 30 years ago. At one time I think I had seven rinks. I was originally a city employee with the winter program, and then I switched to become an operator on a contract basis through the associations. I had a little rink empire going at one point. It was pretty challenging with seven rinks. There were no cellphones in those days. I had my brother working for me full time, but it was difficult because you couldn’t communicate with each other.
“Anyway, that’s what I did at one point, and then I became an international teacher, in South America and the Middle East. Now I’m retired — for close to 10 years now — and I wanted to keep in shape. I always lose about 10 pounds doing the rinks.
“I just do two rinks now, here and Lincoln Heights, on Regina. I don’t know how I ever did seven.
“I enjoy getting out here in the sunshine. I love working in the morning, rather than at night, because of the sun. It’s very peaceful, and it’s satisfying when you get a nice, smooth surface. And some days if you’re out here really early you get the steam coming off, through the sunshine. It’s almost like a Zen moment. It’s very relaxing.
“This rink I also enjoy because there’s a learning disabilities school that’s close by, and they use it almost three times a week. They love coming over here. They don’t have a playground, so they love to use the rink. So I often keep it going into March if I can. There are a couple of other schools that use it, and the association has their winter carnival every year, and a lot of people come to that.
“But there’s something distinctly Canadian to this, especially when it’s 35 below, and it’s hard to stop once it’s in your blood. I have a girlfriend in Colombia, and her nickname for me is The Penguin.”
— Rob Graham. Frank Ryan Park, Feb. 2, 2017.
bdeachman@postmedia.com
查看原文...
