When I was a kid in Canada I got mostly hand me downs, which included a pair of low cut hockey skates with no ankle support that started me skating on my ankles before I got enough strength to stand upright on them. Pictures of this type of skate is found listed under antiques.

They are the only pair I’d ever run across. All the other kids had the skates with the ankle supports. My parents couldn’t afford skates so they relied on the generosity of the parents of my friends for things like hand me down skates, scout uniforms, or baseball a glove. Thinking back, I was a popular kid to the point where my friend Richard Cartwright looked me up to invite me to a high school graduation reunion although I’d left the school early in 8th grade. A girl classmate who later married and moved to Pennsylvania had wanted to see me again. I had saved her from being sexually assaulted by three other classmates. It was getting dark and as was my habit I had wandered off alone to sit by the water. I always liked being by myself. I kept hearing what sounded like laughter coming from the beach dressing rooms, which finally made me go over there to see what was happening. Three classmates had Geraldine pinned up against the dressing room wall, her blouse was ripped open, and their hands were all over her. I pulled the guys off and gave then a not so friendly lecture. GW was obviously very distraught and crying. I offered to escort her home, but she refused. That was the end of my friendship with these guys. But GW obviously remembered me from the episode as I hadn’t seen her since 8th grade. Why else would she remember me? What happened after that I have no idea. I don’t remember seeing the guys in school again. They would have been in our home room. It wasn’t the first of last time I stood up against bullies or lost friends because of it. beachy wedding dresses

Back to the skates: In researching skates without ankle support I found out Olympic speed skaters use low cut skates without them. It appears they sometimes have to angle their ankles slightly to get greater speed. They also have the long straight blades and not the much shorter curved ones.