We have a big ice skating rink in Forest Park and more in the suburbs. A few corporations decided to put up one downtown for just December and January. It's sponsored by Monsanto, the seed and farm chemical giant, and the newly-renovated Peabody Opera House across the street. Peabody is one of the world's largest coal companies and is headquartered here.
Well, that's a nice gesture. However, they seem to have forgotten to publicize it. I heard a brief reference to it on the radio. The only information I could find online were small news items on the web sites of two local TV stations. There was only one couple there when I had a look last weekend.
An oddity of the place is that one end is dominated by a huge statue of Friedrich Schiller. He'll watch your shoes while you skate for a small tip, as long as you hum the Ode To Joy while you make the circuit. Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!
Well, that's a nice gesture. However, they seem to have forgotten to publicize it. I heard a brief reference to it on the radio. The only information I could find online were small news items on the web sites of two local TV stations. There was only one couple there when I had a look last weekend.
An oddity of the place is that one end is dominated by a huge statue of Friedrich Schiller. He'll watch your shoes while you skate for a small tip, as long as you hum the Ode To Joy while you make the circuit. Seid umschlungen, Millionen! Diesen Kuss der ganzen Welt!
9 comments:
Funny I took a photo of a F. Schiller statue on Sunday in Stuttgart! The ice-rink looks... icy!
When I was a kid the ice rink was just outside my window. I still live in the same house, but the school were the ice rink used to be have given up on the idea that the kids would like to go ice skating here.
I'm finding it hard to even IMAGINE an ice rink right now..I do like the way you've taken this shot Bob, an outer circle of tall buildings and an inner circle of skeleton trees, where M. Schiller fits in I'm not sure!!
jack, of hartford daily photo, posted a rink shot today too, but his was taken at night and it was packed.
I didn't know that Schiller had ties to Saint Louis. Sehr interessant!
This looks like a nice rink, too bad it has not been advertised. It's certainly larger than most of the public skating areas in Toronto.
PS: Yesterday's rink was taken near City Hall in downtown T-town.
I remember an ice rink in Clayton a few miles west of Forest Park that was quite busy. It was on a main road and was quite visible. I hope the word gets out about the Forest Park rink.
I don't know that an ice rink sponsored by Monsanto would attract more than rotten tomatoes in France. I can't think of a company less popular than them here. They stand for everything we find disgusting : corporate greed against small farmers' survival.
But on another note we don't see seasonal ice rinks here. It isn't part of our culture. I guess it never got cold enough for our lakes or rivers to freeze so people never got to skating on a reguarl basis, apart from in the Alps I mean.
Looks like a nice spot... bit of an odd place for a Schiller statue.
Very different from the crowded ice at the Hartford skating rink last night.
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