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Ice Skating

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Common Sense is Key to Ice Safety

Winter is here and skating, ice fishing and snowmobiling enthusiasts are eager to get on the ice, but is it safe yet?

Winter certainly felt like it was here last week and winter sports enthusiasts of all kinds are waiting to get out on the ice. But Hopkinton Fire Chief Ken Clark said outdoorsmen need to use caution when going on the ice. "We don't make any recommendations in regards to ice safety," Clark said. "There are just too many liabilities if something happens and we said the ice was safe." Clark did say that there are some things that you can do to be sure you are safe. "First off, if you are questioning whether the ice is safe or not it probably isn't," Clark said. "Even if the ice is thick in one place it might be different five feet away." It is often best to only skate on lakes and ponds that you are familiar with, Clark said. He also said to …

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Mary MacDonald

2:08 pm on Thursday, January 10, 2013

My town (I grew up on a lake), had a neighbor who decided when it was safe. He'd go out and measure it in different spots. At the end of the winter, we always had ice fishermen who seemed to fall in, though.   more ›

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Missing the Old Gang Now That Winter is Here

My gang turned the season into a winter sports wonderland.

  I miss the old gang. We weren't "Sons of Anarchy" and didn't exactly rumble and tumble with other gangs. We didn't have tattoos, because our moms would have been mad. We rode bikes, but they had banana seats and baseball cards in the spokes, not engines. This was more like "Leave It to Beaver" meets "The "Brady Bunch," because we had girls in our gang, as long as they were cool. The standard for girls in the gang was whether they could hit a baseball, take a slap shot or catch a slant pass. If they could, they were in. In the 1970s, our world revolved around sports and its seasons. We played baseball in the spring and summer, basketball and hockey year around, and football in the fall and spring. We fished. We hunted. We made boats, …

Susan Clare

7:19 am on Sunday, January 8, 2012

Me too, though we used our fine motor skills also. As a girl, I had to practice the piano, learn to sew, and make crafts. I played cowboys (girls?), sleuth, hunt-to-kill (usually resulting in some kid actually falling off an overhang or falling off her bike in a mad chase). The boys in the neighborhood let me join in crack-the-whip, though I had to be the end of the whip. I took pride in never …   more ›

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