Day 31 – Dick Button

Friday, January 31, 2025

Where I grew up, we had a pond. In the wintertime we’d go skating on it. When it snowed we had big curved black metal scoops to clear the snow. Somehow, this time we didn’t get to clearing it. The snow had melted and refroze. There was a smooth gray patch between two humps of snow. My brother Rob and I were out skating. Dad was up in the living room. He could see us out the big picture window. Our next door neighbors The Rosenbergs had asked if they could come skate. Dad had said yes, of course.

This was an unusual request. For all the years we had known The Rosenbergs they had never asked to come skate. Jack and Debbie were casting agents in New York. This was their weekend getaway house.

As I remember they came over with another fellow, probably in his early thirties. I’m guessing this was the late 50s or early 60s. I remember Deb sitting on the edge of the pond putting on her figure skates. The other fellow whom we didn’t know had put on his skates and in the little space between the two plateaus of remelted frozen snow did a move and all of a sudden he was spinning. I mean twirling. He came out of the spin and commented, “that’s no good.” We had no idea why. It was fabulous. We were only a few feet away.

I remember Rob and I going over to look at the impression in the ice. It was a corkscrew like carving. Maybe more like “the golden ratio” or a snail’s shell seen in crossection.

Soon Dad was down wih a black scoop, trying to clear more ice. He had seen this fellow twirling about and wanted to give him more room.

Who was the man?

I’m sure many of you have guessed. It was Dick Button. Two time gold medalist (1948 & ’52). So when he was on our pond it was seven or maybe ten years after his last Olympics. 

We were always Button fans after that.