community skating party (Orono, Old Town, Veazie: city hall, safe, activities)

[7th generation]

this is one way that western Maine celebrates winter.*Edit: I love the way the kid makes his grand entrance onto the rink!!!

[Submariner]

Corinth Maine and Old Town Maine both have groomed outdoor ice rinks.

[Maine Writer]

Reminds me of many hours spent skating on the Stillwater River in Orono, at the steam plant. Someone built a shed for us to change into and out of our skates, and they kept the ice clear for us. Eventually we went to a n outdoor rink right there because someone decided the river wasn't all that safe (they were probably right). I had a rink in the back yard thanks to my father shoveling snow and flooding the yard. Parents always knew where we were. If we weren't in my backyard we were behind Tabenken's (Veazie, long gone now) on the bog. Someone's father would bring a tire down and light it on fire so we could warm up, and then he left. We skated through tunnels created by alders. It was a lot of fun. It's good to see interest in these activities still exists.

[CARas2020]

WOW that is so cool. I think they do this kind of thing in Minnesota too.

Been so many years since I skated. Not sure I would want to try it now.

[Submariner]

The Penobscot River cuts through the middle of Old Town, so they made a city park there. Decades ago the Rec department dug a trench and poured concrete in it, so it has a 2 inch wide groove in the concrete, in the form or a circle 100 foot in diameter. All they need to do is set 2 X 6 boards on edge in that groove, and wait for rain/sleet to fill it. Or if a fireman gets bored he can drag a firehose to this circle and so long as the temps are under 20F, filling the circle with a few inches of water makes a great skating rink.

Last summer I was in the park during a music concert, and I got to looking at the concrete circle. It took me a while to figure out that it was the form for a skating rink.

I asked city hall about it. It seems the guy who had set it up decades ago had retired, and the city forgot that it existed. Because there was renewed conversation about the rink this year, someone in the Rec department found the boards and installed them.

This year the skating rink is there again.