SKATE!

January 6, 2010 by kim.

I was wandering around in Central Park a couple weeks ago, when I came upon the Trump Wollman Skating Rink.

We’ve considered skating here, so I thought I’d look and see how much it would cost:

Whoa. That’s pricey. Wait - spectator fee? Seriously? How far away do I have to stand for it to be free to observe?

If we went on a weekend, it would cost this much:

Double whoa.

That’s insane! I remember skating in middle school on a frozen parking lot and it cost us NOTHING! To pay over $50 to skate around on some ice with a bunch of people is a little much, I think. It looks like we could save the locker rental fee (I hope that the whopping $0.25 bump is helping them out – wow), if we left everything at home and just went into the city with cash and a train card in our pockets. Is it worth it? Looking at the rules and regulations, skating here seems a little restrictive, anyway:

No bags? What if someone has a really huge purse? No cell phones? Okay - I can see that, I guess. No getting distracted by texting or a phone call and running someone over. Fine by me. No cameras? How are people supposed to take pictures of each other? Are they allowed to have any fun at all?

No.

While I was watching the skaters (and taking pictures from a safe and free distance), there was an announcement commanding the skaters to stop. They did, and the announcer went on to chide them all for reckless skating. They were told NOT to have bags and cameras on the ice and NOT to skate through the middle of the rink. They were told NOT to mess around with the cones in the center and to be sure to hold on to ONLY the white boards surrounding the rink if they were having a problem staying upright. Then they were told to TURN AROUND, face the other direction, and SKATE. Which they did. Carefully.

Note the cones

Have fun, everybody.

That’s an ORDER!

Posted in Observation | No Comments »