Skating on Frozen Cranberries

By Joan E.B. Coombs
Published on October 2, 2008
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Frozen cranberry bogs could serve as an ice-skating rink for an entire rural area.
Frozen cranberry bogs could serve as an ice-skating rink for an entire rural area.
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Drying clothes and a cup of hot chocolate bring a welcome feeling after a day out on the ice.
Drying clothes and a cup of hot chocolate bring a welcome feeling after a day out on the ice.

“We’ve gotta flood the bogs. The vines are gonna freeze!” our neighborhood cranberry farmers urgently announced early one winter. That year, the cold arctic blast arrived early in our New England town, bringing with it a good deal of excitement.

News that the bogs would soon be flooded caused a wave of excitement that spread like wildfire through every household. And in anticipation of the eventual freeze, each family began a scavenger hunt for the next-size-up skates.

“Some of these skates won’t fit yet,” my mom advised, as she kept pulling pairs of hand-me-down skates out of the big, old, dome-topped sea chest, harbored upstairs in the attic of our old Cape Cod farmhouse.

“Any skates for me?” I asked, peering over the edge of the huge, tall trunk. 

“Sure. We’ll find the double-runner skates you wore last year.” 

Soon she was digging through layers of neatly stacked winter clothes, putting them in piles to surround us on the cool linoleum floor.

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