Sport: Silver Skates

Like the little Dutch boy in Mary Mapes Dodge's children's classic, Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates, Henk van der Grift grew up in Holland dreaming of whizzing his way to glory on the ice. But because the canals around his home town of Breukelen (which gave its name to Brooklyn) seldom froze over, Henk had to do much of his training by taking to the woods and pushing one foot after the other along the ground as though he were skating. Recalls his mother flatly: "He was declared crazy any number of times."

Gradually, Henk's solitary practice began to take effect....

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