It’s remarkable to skate on Fisher Pond in the maritime Northwest, with its relatively balmy winters. It’s even more remarkable to glide across the ice with skates loaned out by a complete stranger. But such is life on Vashon, where a sense of community spirit runs strong.
For the past couple of decades, Linda Peterson — affectionately called the Imelda Marcos of ice skates by her friend and fellow skating enthusiast Neil Drawbridge — has been snatching up used pairs wherever she could find them. As a result, she now boasts around 70 pairs. And when there’s a long enough cold snap to turn Fisher Pond into an outdoor ice arena, she shows up, skates in tow, to loan them out to anyone in need.
Last Saturday was one such day. Linda, her husband Gary and a bevy of friends — many in their 60s — were out in force, lacing up skates and taking to the ice. When Linda Peterson wasn’t on the ice, she was at the pond’s edge, next to a milk carton full of skates, helping people paw through the pile for a pair that might fit. She also had a few hockey sticks on hand, which she loaned to those who admitted to a bit of trepidation about skating on an arena without handholds.
Perhaps scenes such as this one are unfolding in towns and villages throughout the United States’ northern climes, where lakes freeze in the winter and residents don their skates. We can only hope so. But in a country where many lament the collapse of community, it could be that this Saturday morning scene was a Vashon special, another sign of how lovely life on this little Island can be.
Author and sociologist Robert Putnam forcefully captured the troubling unraveling of community in his highly acclaimed book, “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.” According to his research, not only are we connecting less with each other; we’re also, as a result, signing fewer petitions, belonging to fewer organizations and engaging in fewer other activities that strengthen our country’s social fabric.
Saturday’s skating on Fisher Pond was a true-life antidote to his provocative findings. Far from bowling alone, we were skating together.
