Yes, I kept at the lessons, got a good pair of skates of my own and made it into some of the shows put on at the rink.

There was a lot of work to it and a lot of failure at times. One of the main obstacles was having a good pair of skates. The ones to be rented were not in the best of shape even though the man behind the counter seemed to be working on skates all day long. For the jumps especially you needed the base to be extra strong. Finally one Christmas I did get the skates. I have to admit they made a difference in my abilities. Poor mom had to make all the costumes which were designed to specifications so they all came out looking the same. Some kids I am sure had to hire someone to do this but luckily I had a talented and resourceful mom.     The first picture was my least favorite of any of the costumes. I was a purple people eater. While the song was darling and the routine was fun, the silly horned purple people eater hats found at a five and dime were a little over the top. The tunic was purple satin, the straps were yellow oil cloth with some big silver sequins on it and the tights were red. The hat of course matched the concept with a yellow horn on top that you could remove and blow.