Ice Skating at Luna Park

 

I spent a lot time the last couple of days - looking for the perfect picture to post this morning. With everybody else doing so much Christmas - I wanted something just a little bit different and unique - a sort of one of a kind shot - so here it is - Ice Skating at Luna Park (Roxbury). I just love this shot - it makes me want to grab a pair of skates and join them out there - just skating around and having a ball - listening to all the fun and laughter - soaking it all in. These were folks - young and old - that believed in Johnstown and what could be accomplished by hard days work.

I hold no illusions about the past - even though I dearly love history and talk about it constantly -  "The past is a foreign country - They do things differently there". If you had a sheet of paper and drew a line down the middle - you could list what is wrong with Johnstown - but on the other side you could also list what is right with Johnstown.
These folks all had very hard lives - but they all had one thing in common - whether rich or poor - they had enough "spirit" within themselves - that unknown and unseen force that kept them going and helped keep this city alive for decades.
I believe that "spirit" still lives in a few of us that believe in Johnstown and love the city we call home. You can give me a thousand reasons why Johnstown is in the shape that it is in - I'm not stupid and not blind to the facts.
But you have to admit that there is indeed something special about our area - that folks miss when they leave - something you can't put into words and more than just looking at old pictures of home on Vintage Johnstown - every once in a while - I post one of these rare glimpses into the human spirit that I see in this simple picture of people enjoying an afternoon of ice skating....