My eleventh skating lesson (of thirteen) was today, and during the warm-up drills and post-lesson free skate the instructors play music. It has been a trip down memory lane as the music has been, so far, all hits from the seventies. The first song they played on my first lesson was “Fly, Robin, Fly” by Silver Convention, which took me back over thirty years since I remember skating to that song when I was a child. I used to skate on an outdoor rink beside my primary school, and sometimes I went to the Huron Park Recreation Centre, where I am taking lessons now. It was a jolt to the memory when I heard “Fly, Robin, Fly” over thirty years later and in the same place.
Today the instructors played only Christmas music. I love all Christmas music, and have been listening to nothing but since the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. My favourite Christmas albums are by Ray Conniff, Lawrence Welk, both Christmas albums by Quartette, Rosemary Clooney (especially her Concord album White Christmas), the Kingston Trio (their album The Last Month of the Year), and Sari and Mari Kaasinen (whose Finnish Christmas album has been released in the US under the English title Can We Have Christmas Now?).