The Slice: Wooden ships on the water (and the menu)

I’ve told this story before.

But every time Columbus Day approaches, I smile again.

A Spokane book editor once came across a passage in a manuscript that listed the explorer’s three ships as “Nina, Pinto and the Santa Maria.”

The author must have been thinking about beans.

Abbreviated skating careers: Sandpoint’s Tom Renk said his ice skating adventures began and ended on the same day.

He was an Idaho high school senior. His class went to Sun Valley in early March. Some of the teens went skating, including Tom, though it was his first time.

He started cautiously but soon found his stride. “I sill had not fallen and was pretty proud of myself,” he wrote. “Suddenly, the opportunity to change that presented itself, right in front of me, while I was at considerable speed.”

A young boy had fallen directly in his path.

“Not being able to stop or turn in time, I jumped over him, and, to my amazement, I both cleared him AND landed on my feet, keeping going.”

Demonstrating wisdom beyond his years, Tom attributed his feat to pure luck.

“I soon turned in my skates while I was ahead. That was my first and last ice skating adventure.”

Here’s Vera-Ora Winslow’s story. “I was standing at the edge of the rink, when someone came up behind me, lost control, knocked my feet out from under me, and I sat down on her skates.”

Ever taken a seat on someone else’s skate blades?

“Yow!” she wrote. “I can still feel that skate biting into my right cheek.”

She hasn’t been skating since.

Cruising Riverside: Hazel Blenz of Blanchard, Idaho, said that back around 1951 it was called “Tooling the Loop.”

She included then and now photos of her and her husband, Bob. They both look great in each picture, though Bob appears to be somewhat less of a badass nowadays. I could be wrong.

Hazel wrote, “Friday nights after the movie, we’d climb into our ’33 Ford and cruise Riverside looking for a drag (race). We’d agree to meet out at the city limits of Francis and Division and race out Division. We usually won.”

And now a final word on the subject.

Cheney’s Jerry Hilton said there is only one correct answer to the question about when cruising Riverside was at its peak. “The best time was when you were 16-18, regardless of the year.”

Today’s Slice question: Do you still regard flannel shirts as a symbol of the Northwest?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. Does anyone for whom it is a workplace holiday refuse to take Columbus Day off, on principle?