- Gary Delaney: Ronnie, he was born in 1942,
and I was born in 1944.
We both grew up in Beloit.
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- Ron Delaney: It was good times when we were starting to grow up.
That's basically when we started getting into skating.
I was two years old.
My dad took a pair of my regular shoes,
and he made my first pair of skates.
Mom and Dad put on quite a few shows,
and they put them on at the lagoon.
- Gary: My dad made Mr. and Mrs. Snowman.
He took chicken wire and made snowmen out of it. - Ron: Oh, yeah.
- Gary: And my mom and dad actually waltzed together!
- Ron: My mom would take a bunch of young gals
and build up a ballet.
And then, we had some dads and daughters skating together.
One of our friends built up a stilt skates.
- Gary: Then, he would do all different other type of figures
that figure skates would normally do.
And these skates were 18 inches high. [laughs]
- Ron: Yeah, you're a ways up in the air.
You can definitely... in the air quite a ways.
Dad, he was the clown of the circus,
and he would take a wooden table,
and take two wooden chairs out there,
and also have four Coke bottles,
and take the first wooden chair
and stand it on the four Coke bottles.
And then, he'd do a complete handstand on top of that.
It was just for entertainment.
It was all free.
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- Gary: There would be at least 1,000-plus people
because they would be all around the rink,
and they'd probably be five, six deep.
And, of course, the parents
are proud to see their kids
when everybody's watching, you know.
[surfing music]
- Ron: Living in Beloit,
at that time, it was a good, safe place to live.
Just being on the river and everything else,
it was just a good time.
We swam in the river a lot.
We both learned how to water ski.
- Gary: There was a Korn Kurl factory
just a couple of blocks away from us.
And there was a kind of like a little driveway there.
And we'd walk down that,
and we'd get free Korn Kurls
'cuz they'd have a batch going.
They were nice and warm, too. [laughs]
- Ron: But the thing we used to do is
we used to take our white T-shirts
and hold them out,
and that's where they put 'em. [Gary cracking up]
Mom wasn't very happy about that.
- Gary: Yeah...
- Ron: It was just a good place to grow up,
and we just enjoyed the heck out of it.
- Gary: You just don't forget that kind of stuff.
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