One Moment In Time

I have just paid for my membership to a new skating club. My old skating club was disbanded and I feel as though I've lost a friend. When I began skating, I tried to join my current skating club and was told they did not accept adult skaters as members. Fast forward to June and they are welcoming me with open arms. How the tables have turned. My old club was like that old movie "The Bad News Bears"; a rag-tag group of decent to pretty good skaters who never got a break. We never won major competitions, we never even placed, but we had some talented skaters. We were our own little family and we always joined together to do what we could to help one another. When I was short on funds, the club understood and let me pay off my sessions. I was the fill-in Ice Monitor until the club Vice President arrived. I would open up the club room and boil water so anyone who came in could have hot cocoa or tea. The number dwindled and the City of NY sold the building, tearing down the rink. Yes, another rink was built in its place, but it wasn't the same. The club sessions were gone. The Vice Presidenent and her family moved away. The club became a shadow of what it once was. There were so few members that I registered my family for membership, even though no one skated except me. I kept my deceased mother's membership valid for two years after her passing to keep the club going. A few years ago, when I checked, the club had three active, competitive members and I was one of them. The club president moved away and the club has been dissolved. I can still hear the laughter from the club room, the smell of cocoa. I can still feel that wobbily feeling one got when they landed a jump a little too close to what we called the "bullpen". It was a strip of ice that dipped down significantly, but it wasn't near the Zamboni, it was near the penalty box. I remember our holiday parties and the club Vice President and how sweet and kind she was. My old friend who moved away, got married and no longer speaks to me because her husband (who met me once) doesn't like me. Practicing jumps on the subway platform and spraining my ankle. None of the people who I skated with at those sessions are still on the ice. The kids have grown up and off of the ice. Ths coaches have have either retired or moved on and in at least two cases, passed away. It was a special moment in time for which I have no pictures or videos. We were all too busy living the moment to document it in any way, shape or form. Now I have a new skating club. One with prestige, a pedigree and former National Champions. It's great to be a part of something big, but I can't help but miss my Monday and Friday night sessions with that crazy gang. Wherever you are my former club-mates, I wish you well. "I want one moment in time When I'm more than I thought I could be When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away And the answers are all up to me Give me one moment in time When I'm racing with destiny Then in that one moment of time I will feel I will feel eternity..." One Moment in Time by Albert Hammond and John Bettis