Out In the Cold

The 3:30 bell just doesn’t want to ring today. Mrs. Knight is announcing something using her stern, you better pay attention voice, but I don’t know what it is. I hear Susan Berry bragging about her new skating rink. Mr. Berry makes a rink in Thorn Lodge Park every year. His garden hose reaches out to a flat place in the field in the park through his green chain link fence. Susan and her brothers make snow dams around the edges to keep the water in and once it freezes all of the kids from Thorn Lodge Public School go skating there. If the bell would ever ring I’d be able to run home and grab my skates and get to the park.

“BRINGG!.”

We’re in the grade 5 hallway putting on our coats, hats, mittens and boots. I have yellow, green, blue, red and white moon boots. Well, they’re almost moon boots anyway. They look just like real moon boots, but my Mom bought them at K-Mart and the name brand on them is Toonboots. Susan is so jealous! I wish I could be the most popular girl in grade 5 instead of her. Everyone hangs on every word that she says. I pull on my brown
White Stag ski jacket and red mittens and head for home. Everyone is talking about going skating. Suzanne asks, “Liz, are you going skating?” My yes echoes down the stair well as I tear out or the door.

My run home isn’t very long. I scoot down on my hunches on the toboggan hill, passing my little sister Christine as I go. “Come on Chrissy. “I call, “Let’s go skating.” She scurries behind me all puffed up in her one piece purple snow suit. We run through the pathway that leads to Vineland Road and shuffle our way down the patches of ice, snow and pavement as fast as we are able.

When we reach the corner of Vineland and Winthrope we cross the street even though it’s not the fastest way home. Krista the huge German Shepard lives on that corner and we’re both afraid of her. I wonder why they don’t build a fence or tie up that dog. She’s been terrorizing me for years now. Chrissie is so scared she holds my hand as we approach the corner. The dog isn’t out today. We pass back over to our side of the street and run the last two hundred feet to home pushing our way through the newly formed snow drifts clustered on the side of our house. We’re at the back door. I try the knob but it’s locked. I ring the door bell and hear it softly chiming on the other side of the brick wall. Mom finally appears to open the door and lets us into the back hallway.

“Burr, brush the snow off of yourselves before you come in.”

She seems excited. She kisses us both and asks how school was.

“Fine” we both say. “We’re going skating in the park”

I go to the basement to fetch my skates. When I come back upstairs Mom has a Hudson’s Bay Company bag in her hands.

“Elizabeth Ann, I got you something today. Your coat is getting small, and when I saw this I thought of you.”

She pulled a white wooly coat from the paper bag. It was a bomber style jacket with an elastic waist band and elastic cuffs. It had four bright stripes that ran around the chest. They were inky black, emerald green, poppy red and bright golden yellow. It reminded me of the Olympic rings I saw during the Montreal summer Olympics last year. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

“Wow” I exclaimed.

“It’s called a Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket coat and it’s all the rage this year.”  “Can I wear it skating?”

I remember that Susan made fun of me when I got my brown coat. She said I looked like Starbuck from Battle Star Galactica. I pushed her in the snow and Mr. Button made me stay in for recess.

“Elizabeth, young ladies don’t fight and they don’t push.” He said. Just wait until she sees my new coat. She gave me the cold shoulder for two days when I got my moon boots. She sent Darrel Johnson across the playground to tell me that Mork, from Mork and Mindy, wore dumb boots like mine, but I know she was jealous. I just smiled and told Darrell that Susan should grow up. He shrugged his shoulders and skipped back to Susan’s circle of friends who all jiggled when he told her what I said. I looked at my feet and ate the Sun Maid raisons in the tiny red box that Mom had given me for recess.

When recess was over and we were reading our SAR cards in Mrs. Knight’s class. I could think of all sorts of clever things to say to Darrel, but I can never think of what to say when I need it. Susan cheats at SAR cards. I saw her. She copies the answers onto her hand when she is pretending to chose a card. None of that matters anymore because I’m going to go skating in the park wearing my new coat.

Chrissy and I cut through the Horseley’s back yard. My feet punch through the icy top of the snow, but Chrissy walks right on top. We hear the rink before we see it. It looks even better than last years. Susan and about ten other girls are standing at the edge of the rink talking and flipping their Farah Fawcett hair in the wind. We step onto the rink and I head towards the crowd. The smell of lip gloss and hair spray cuts through the crisp air.

Susan spots me before I make it to the group. Her eyes grow wide as she spies my new coat. I put my hands into my fuzzy new pockets and gracefully glide over to the group. Barbara Goody and Stacy Dale make room for me in the circle. Stacy reaches out and strokes the arm of my new coat. She’s smiling and I know she is going to say something nice. Then Susan says,

“Did you steal Mrs. Knight’s new coat?” Everyone laughs. “That is an old lady coat; I can’t believe you’re wearing it. I wouldn’t be caught dead in that bath mat.”

I went home.

“Where is your sister”, asked Mom.

“Still skating I guess.” I said.

“You know better than to leave your little sister alone in the park Elizabeth Ann. Go back and get her.” I went, but before I went I took off my new coat and stuffed it behind the pile of glass pop bottles that were waiting to be returned to Dominion. I put on my old brown coat and went back to the park. When Susan saw me coming towards the rink she smiled. She had won and she knew it.

“Mrs. Knight does have the same coat as me.” I thought as I waited for the morning bell to ring. She was huddled with two other teachers talking as steam billowed from the top of her coffee mug. The bell rang and we went into the school. I hung my brown coat on my hook.