Several blocks from the Winner home in West Endicott, there was a bowling alley and an adjacent roller skating rink. Every Saturday evening, Bea would walk to the bowling alley with her father so he could bowl while she skated. To Bea, skating was like dancing. The indoor rink had shiny wood floors, so it was much better for skating than the bumpy sidewalks where it was easy to hit a patch of broken cement and end up in someone"s bushes.
Bea loved the music they played as she circled around the rink to the jazzy notes of “Puttin" on the Ritz.” She could skate backward and complete turns on one skate, and because of her expertise, many of the boys wanted to skate with her just for an opportunity to hold her hand. She always flashed a dazzling smile to one of her skate partners before she w
