In early 70's in Korea, not every streets of the town were paved, and many mountains were barren with virtually no trees growing. After raining, especially in summer, I often went out wearing a pair of rain boot and walked around the town to get the feel for what would be like seeing mountain drenched in rain. Once, I stepped into an edge of a pool of water that had risen with heavy rain and saw a snake swimming by, freaking me out so bad, I pulled my foot instantaneously, which took off my foot out of the water, leaving a boot still stuck in the mud. In summer time, we enjoyed going around different places in the town: playing in the hill, visiting market places for browsing, etc. Toys were scarce, so we played in vacant lots nearby home or walked around a small mountain in Yunhee-dong catching frogs and grasshoppers, or watching a mountain that was being bulldozed to make more area for building houses or catching slimy fish in the puddles outskirts of the town. In the winter, I used to look for place to play with my spinning top on rice field when it was frozen and came across with seeing a bunch of people skating on another frozen rice paddy nearby; I was so excited to see people skating for I had never seen anything like before. The idea that blades are attached to feet and glided on ice was the most interesting to me. My grandfather made a sled for me to ride it on at a little frozen pond nearby home, which I had enjoyed quite a bit for the preceding years, but seeing the sight of people skating brought me excitements and love for the activity in the order of magnitude instantly for this newly found activity. In those days, I could see rice paddies all around in 연희동, and even some thatched roofed houses bellowing smoke from chimney in the evening were often party of the scenery in early 70's. The skating link was made such that water was drawn into rice paddy and let it freeze over night. In the evening, when the sun was setting, the worker drew water and spread over the link for making another new coat of fresh ice to be formed overnight. The place was fenced out with wooden stakes and straw ropes, and a makeshift box office with vinyl covering was set up for collecting admission fees. Near the entrance outside the box office, there were servicemen sitting on a row of little wooden benches with their tools set up for sharpening blades. Wearing Russian hats that cover their ears, they were busy sharpening the blades bellowing steam out from their mouth in the cold weather sharping the blades pushing and pulling grinding stone. During the winter, skating was a wonderful pass-time young people to expand their sprits exposing themselves in outdoor. There, sometimes, I met my neighbors or run into my classmates. I used to go skating very early in the morning hoping to maximize time skating, arriving early in the morning when the surface is so fresh without a single scratch mark of a blade, but my enthusiasm would die down quickly especially when cold wind blowing overpowered my enthusiasm time. At that time, skating became a secondary activity at the thoughts on eating warm snacks sold in the enclosed vinyl stalls. On early in the morning of a cold days, the ice looked shinny from a coat of water spread night earler. When the weather gets brutally cold, it made my teeth chatter making me to go inside the hut huddle around a hot coal burn to thaw my body. The stalls were made out of vinyl covering to protect from wind, allowing to see through outside.
The best Christmas Eve I had was once upon leaving there heading home. Waiting at the bus stop, I heard sound of a Christmas carol coming from two speakers near at the front door to a record shop. My body was aching from long hours of skating, and the carol songs had a soothing effect on my body, melting away the aching pain and replenishing it with sweet touch of a breeze. There was a sprit of Christmas in the air with cloudy sky with temperature was just cold enough to see some flurries. Street vendors were selling roasted chestnuts, and the smell of roasting made the atmosphere all the more beautiful for the occasion. The wonderful holiday spirit that I had felt during this three mintues waiting for the bus was unforgettable.
The ice was usually frozen tight, but when the weather gets warmer in late winter when the ice starting to melt, sometime foul odor can be felt from my clothes after falling down on the melted ice. One late winter day, before the winter vacation was over, my distant cousin girl unexpectedly visited me with her friend and asked me to take them to ice-skating. We walked all the way to “연희동”, and skated all throughout the afternoon, and that was the really fun.
