SkateHistory.Ca

The Early Years

After a time, things improved for the family, and William was able to get back on his feet by moving to San Francisco and taking a job with the National Cash Register Company. By the time Sheldon was 14, the whole family was able to move to San Francisco where they were reunited.

It is here that both Sheldon and Murray started to pursue their dreams of skating. The 48th Street rink, run by the Thompson family, became a second home to the boys. Every Saturday morning they would head there, with 2 streetcar tickets each (at a cost of a nickel per), and 25 cents which covered the cost for a morning skating session, including rental skates. Eventually the boys were given jobs scraping the ice, which paid for their skating.

The first pair of skates that Sheldon bought himself was Johnson Skates a pair of Nestor Johnson hockey skates, costing $8.24, which he earned by selling newspapers at 18th and Geary Streets in the "streetcar zone".

"There is nothing like finally having your own equipment, and not having to rely on hand-me-downs or rentals".

Sheldon was free to finally start really having some fun experimenting with his skating. He was always trying new things; got lots of encouragement from other skaters and coaches; but even the most basic waltz jump and figure eight was pretty difficult to do in hockey skates.

Mostly, Sheldon perfected the art of falling on his left hip, which he did a whole lot, causing him to shift his wallet from left to right pocket, where you can still pickpocket it to this day. In a move that one could only describe as lunatic, Sheldon attempted what he thought would be an Axel jump one-day. This jump was so wild and wide open that he injured himself on the landing. A lesser man might have given up, but this made him more determined than ever to figure this skating thing out.

No surprise to find at this time, that he had grown as a skater beyond the regular pleasure skating session, and was removed from them.

If he was going to continue as a figure skater, Sheldon's next step had to be to buy himself his first pair of figure skates. They were Polar Reginas, an early "open toe model, and interesting from today's perspective because they were a riveted boot and blade. The skate was riveted to the boot as well as the blade being riveted to the sole plate. This meant that any inaccuracies in footwork, where the blades might knock together, would cause them to make a ringing sound.

Life at the 48th Street rink was becoming more difficult. Initially, the boys had agreed to scrape the ice in exchange for ice time. However management came to expect that they would do more and more work around the rink maintaining it. The constant sweeping, cleaning, handing out of skate rentals and ice scraping, to name but a few of their tasks, meant that they had very little time left to skate.

They approached the management for weekly streetcar tickets and a salary of $5.00 per week for their work, and were refused. Their father had already forewarned them that if they were refused, they should be prepared to make a move to another facility, which they did.