Print Story  Email Story  Discuss Story
» More Feature Stories

As the New Year gets under way, one can only think — what a lousy winter.

MULTIMEDIA Slideshow:  Winter’s always perfect at the rinks

In more than a few Seacoast households, just before bedtime, some version of a snow dance has taken place this winter, with pathetic result. There have been no powder days, the rare free pass the self-employed give themselves to skip work and head to the hills with their skis. There have been no snow days for school children – no going back to bed at 7 a.m. and certainly no running outside to make snow angels and throw icy balls at passing cars while mom and dad worry about child care. Members of the over-21 set have not once strapped on cross country skis to glide to the Press Room in search of brandy and wine.

Whether it’s global warming, bad luck or just nature giving us a lesson about anticipation, it’s a disappointment to those who choose New Hampshire for their home. Playing outside in the snow is what helps us get through winters. What now? The answer, my friends, is skating. Idyllic ponds may not be safely frozen, but as befitting a state known for hockey, there are a number of ice arenas in which you can both bring your children and revisit your own childhood.

Last week at the Dover Ice Arena (home facility for the Great Bay Skating Club, Dover Youth Hockey, the Seacoast Spartans and six local high school teams). I was transported to my youth. The two rinks were bustling — hockey in one, public skating in the other. Public skating in New England has surely made memories for nearly everyone. The scene is always familiar: the slender and impossibly graceful figure skater and her coach in the middle of the rink and then all the regular humans on the perimeter. The little ones, puffy and stiff in their parkas and snow pants, awkwardly push one foot in front of the other while holding on to those walker-looking things. The teenagers, recklessly bomb along while showing off for someone — their friends, some guy, themselves. Outside, station wagons drop off and pick up carloads of kids — it’s a safe place to go for a couple of hours and moms and dads can rest easy. In the lobby, the smell of hot chocolate and the snack bar are tempting even to those who haven’t worked up an appetite on the ice.

The Dover Ice Arena (like others listed here), offers public skating, skate rentals, facility rentals, lessons (for both hockey and figure skating) and special events.

The Dover Ice Arena
www.ci.dover.nh.us/Recreation/DoverArena/
110 Portland Ave., Dover
516-6060

The Rinks at Exeter
www.therinksatexeter.com
40 Industrial Drive, Exeter
775-7423

Rochester Ice Arena
www.myrecdept.com/nh/rochester/default2.asp
63A Lowell St.
Rochester
332-4120

Jackson’s Landing Ice Rink
9 Old Piscataqua Road
Durham
868-3907