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| Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 20:22:22 -0800 |
| From: Marion <voicewr@best1.net> |
| Subject: Squaw Valley Memories |
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| Squaw Valley Skating School was a skater's dream. First of all, the Lake Tahoe Area has to be the most beautiful place in the world. The rink was the ultimate in training, an Olympic facility. We could see ourselves in that prestigious competition as we trained. Besides, we had a fantastic coach, Barbara Wagner, who achieved her Olympic Gold in that very arena! And everyone who trained there and the parents, for the most part,were dedicated people who really cared about us kids. |
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| I mostly remember Mrs.. McKinstry because she took us all in and never complained. I know she was not getting rich in this endeavor, I remember my mother talking her into charging more for her boarding house because she deserved it. At age 45 she was fit as a fiddle, taking her 1 mile daily swim in the Lake (even in lightening storms!). WHY they named it Tahoe is anybody's guess because you can count on the lake ALWAYS being so cold you would turn into a frozen mass in no more than 7 minutes upon entry. Take it from my firsthand experience later in life at age 26: I decided to end my first (and only) parasailing flight by plunging with parachute into that frigid water, feeling like I narrowly escaped cardiac arrest. |
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| Most of the time Mrs. McKinstry's contagious positive attitude spurred us on to enjoy our skating. She saw the best in each one of us and never hesitated to cheer us on when she arrived at rinkside to drop off our lunches. |
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| Mrs. McKinstry made the best meals which we needed for our training. She used to go to the store once a week and stock up on everything from milk to munches. I never remember running out of food. There was even an extra freezer in our room containing lots of milk. To this day, I freeze milk for my family out in our garage because of Mrs McKinstry. |
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| Not only did Mrs. McKinstry house and feed us, but she managed to also do our laundry, take us out on daily outings, and always be around supervising us at home. I suppose she did all the housework as well. Come to think of it, I'm not sure when she had ANY free time (except at midnight). I was amazed at how fair she was and never even played favorites with her own children. |
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| Six years after leaving Squaw Valley, I visited Mrs. McKinstry in Colorado Springs when I was 21 years old. I remember her just looking amazed and commenting on how I've grown into a lovely young lady. |
| That really meant a lot to me. |
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| Since I was living my early teen years in Squaw Valley, I was very aware of what others thought about me. I was considered the good kid (boy, did everyone get fooled!) and a hard worker. I remember judges commenting to me how lovely my TEETH were. (You can imagine how impressed I was.), Jimmy enjoying my "pigeon laugh", and my resemblance in body to Twiggy. You'd say I tried not to fit in, since I knew I never would but I loved being with everyone and working on the sport I love so dearly. The good news is I was a late bloomer and I remember Charlie Tickner seeing me at age 29 after 13 years-- And he didn't recognize me. |
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| And I do remember Roy McKinstry, he for the most part hung around with his friends. But Roy, if you read this I just want to mention that you will be getting a bill for the interest accumulated for the money you took....just kidding! |
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| I have snippets of memories, which I would like to share here: |
| * Barbara Wagner sitting on the rail next to the "Do not sit on rail" sign. |
| * The daily dumb-dumb award, awarded to the person who did the stupidest thing that day. (I wish I still had my copy, which we sent home with everyone that summer.) |
| * Warm ups with music to The 5th Dimension's "Age of Aquarius" |
| * Obscenities from Easy Rider LP (Song-THE PUSHER) being broadcasted through the PA during public session. Barbara noted that she was standing right next to the speaker giving a lesson when this happened. |
| * Public skating was only 50 cents for 6 hours! (11AM - 4PM) |
| * Marshmallow fights |
| * Jo Ann getting into a bike accident. Blood was everywhere. I think to this day she does not ride bikes. This accident fueled the decision not to allow bikes. |
| * Horseback riding at the stables and Saturday Night movie theater adventures. |
| * Snow that never melted on the mountain for the whole summer |
| * Summer thunderstorms that scared us |
| * Having flashlights to get around at night. That included reading in bed. |
| * Hearing "Rise and Shine" at 5:30 AM, dressing and drinking hot jello. |
| * Making friends with the dog we named POOPEE. (Don't ask why we named him that!) |
| * Walking back and forth from the rink at least twice a day. |
| * A miserable Joan Daniels with a broken leg ALL summer. Poor Joan. NOW I feel sorry for her because I've grown up a bit. |
| * Fay Talkov's little rabbit foo foo joke. Personally, I couldn't stand the whole thing and was glad I was not called on to participate. |
| * "Romance" between Charlie Tickner and ? |
| * Debbie Lauer trying triple axels and skating to Aquarius |
| * Juli McKinstry doing huge double lutzes at the end of the rink. |
| * Mary Beth Braun's exceptional lay back spin. To this day, I've never seen one as good. |
| * Watery Ice on afternoon sessions just ready to soak you if you fell on warm up. |
| * Mrs McKinstry's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (Once we found them hidden in the attic.) Oh, Juli, can you send me the recipe? |
| * The discovery of finger nail polish with Mary Jo Turner. I also remember Mary Jo winning competitions in the upper levels with only one pair of skates. That is when we had to do figures. She was a great skater. |
| * The little river that ran in front of the rink that we played in sometimes. |
| * Fireworks on Lake Tahoe. I remember sitting on the beach in Tahoe City in the evening waiting for them to happen and being surprised by the bats in the trees. |
| * Mrs McKinstry's cinnamon coffee cake |
| * Everyone using Nivea on their skin |
| * Taking a week of training to get used to the 5,280 feet above sea level altitude. |
| * We never had a newspaper or television on. We listened to records a lot, like Herman's Hermits and West Side Story. We read and wrote letters and laid out in the sun. (Heaven forbid!) Mrs. McKinstry even commented that is was so wonderful not to know what terrible things were going on in the world. |
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| I also remember two Central Pacific Competitions held in November in Squaw Valley, 1967 and 1968. In '67, the first snow of the year happened the last day of the competition, but in 1968 it was snowing throughout. Besides being cold, I remember trying to complete a left back serpentine on ice that was about 30% slower due to snow drifts coming in from the open side of the area, thus inching my way back to center after the inside push off. (Remember back then we had figures and they counted for 50%, so snow on the ice was a definite problem.) In spite of the snow, there was something magical about the freeskate: a winter wonderland and it almost didn't matter what place you ended in overall. Imagine skating at night shaking like a leaf waiting to depart in fall, in freezing temperatures in a partially outdoor Olympic rink, with your most beautiful (thin) costume, snow drifting down like glitter as you looked above at the lights. The truth is that I would not trade any first place in a "comfortable" competition for that experience. Having done some judging myself, I feel sorry now for the judges. Since I was nervous in the freeskate, I don't remember how they looked, but I can imagine them resembling woolly bears. Figure skating has come a long way since then, and no one would dream of having a competition like this now. It's almost sad to see those days go. |
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| During the '68 competition, my mother and I stayed at the |
| McKinstry House. There were a lot of kids staying there from all different levels and although there was a lot of tension, we had a memorable and exciting time. |
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| I remember Jim "Slim" Licklider singing sad country songs to us in the evenings next to the fire and kids crying their eyes out. My mom said it was to reduce the tension. |
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| I also remember Barbara Ray that year. I think it was the only time she stayed with the McKinstry's. Being a big kid, she drove us around the valley to our practices. Once she started sliding sideways across the road bridge and started to panic, but all went well and we arrived safely at the rink. |
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| Besides the competitions, a few of us diehard skaters |
| trained there in the winter. You could say I was faithful to my coach. A house of 4 kids stayed there the whole winter, but some of us commuted from the Bay Area (including Joan Daniels, Myself, and Juli McKinstry) every weekend during the winter of 69-70 (I believe). It was cold as usual but we loved the high altitude training. We sometimes even skied on Saturdays after early morning sessions. |
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| I guess the only bad thing I remember about Squaw was one summer when I came close to drowning. I don't think anyone knew about it. I got in trouble swimming across the Truckee River to retrieve my inner tube near Gilligan's Island. I learned too quickly that rivers that look slow actually are moving at a fast pace when you are trying to swim. The good news is that I realized I was in trouble and swam back to shore, but I now have a healthy respect for the water. |
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| The most difficult time I had at Squaw was when I had to go home after the summer. The summer I was 14 I remember my mother waiting for me at the rink so we could leave. I was in the bathroom trying to keep from crying and exiting with red eyes. I didn't want Barbara to see how sad I was in leaving. I remember washing my eyes with water over and over to help with the redness. I am sure I was in the restroom at least 45 minutes. When I finally emerged somewhat composed, not one adult made a comment: They knew what I was going through. (As kids we try to hide stuff, but we forget that adults have probably lived through the same experiences!) |
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| Hope you have enjoyed my memories. I probably could make |
| this longer, but oh well...Let's wait for more submissions!. I was a blessed kid, I got to be one! I feel my experiences in Squaw Valley made me realize as an adult that we are children for such a short time and that it isn't necessary to push our children into growing up too fast. Let's give them a happy and carefree childhood. They'll grow up soon enough! |
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| Happy Skating, |
| Marion |
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