Sisters at the Inn

By: Debbie A.
Detroit, MI

In the summer of 1966 our young family had the privilege of staying at Mirror Lake Inn for the entire month of July. Driving up from Detroit, my four sisters and I were new to the delights of figure skating in Lake Placid, the summer mecca for skaters from all over the country. We took over a section of the second floor of the Skater’s Dorm, an older, very charming building near the top of the Inn’s property. It was one big room with enough beds for us all and huge windows overlooking beautiful Mirror Lake. There was a hole in the floor under one of the beds and I made sure we kept the bed over it so my little sisters wouldn’t fall through on the skaters staying below us. We walked down the hill to the main lodge for breakfasts and dinners in the Inn’s dining room. Every day there were fresh linens on the tables and a constant supply of delicious foods. My sisters and I ranged in age from only two to twelve years-old but we were welcomed like princesses by the staff each and every day. We had never been away from home for such a length of time but it didn’t occur to us to be homesick because everyone at the Inn made it feel like it was our home, too.

We rose at the crack of dawn to breathe in the cool mountain air and left for the Olympic Ice Arena first thing, six days a week. School figures took up the morning, free skating in the afternoons and ice dancing in the evenings. We weren’t there for a vacation; we were there to train. We skated nearly eight hours a day, taking breaks only to eat or take a treasured walk down Main Street. We became strong athletes both in mind and body.

We loved our Sundays off because it meant running down to the lake and swimming out to the Inn’s raft. For kids used to chlorinated pools, it was a thrill to swim over the precipice taking us into deeper water and climbing up on that raft with a sense of accomplishment. It was here that the idea of all five of us skating together was first conceived. We choreographed a routine to the song “Side by Side.” We called ourselves the Amelon Five and began skating in the Saturday Night shows, performing nearly every week. We soon received our very first standing ovation and were taken by surprise, unsure what to do for our encore, as we had never rehearsed the possibility of receiving one. We rushed back to the Inn, our home away from home, giddy with a memory we would cherish forever.

A sisterly bond was created at our summer at the Inn. At home, our different grades in school kept us separated but now we were living and training side by side, just like our song, the lyrics of which seemed to fortuned our future:

“Don’t know what’s comin’ tomorrow…
Maybe it’s trouble and sorrow…
But we’ll travel the road…
Sharin’ our load…
Side by side.”

We went on to perform the Amelon Five in other parts of the country but we always came back to Lake Placid. It became our family’s second home, living there on and off for the next ten years and always making stops at Mirror Lake Inn to relive the memory of our summer there together. We’ve seen Mirror Lake Inn grow and prosper through four decades now. Today no one would ever believe there was once a hole in the floor but that’s what gave the old building its charm (MLI was first built in 1878).

Our sisterly bond continues to last us a lifetime. As adults, we have pioneered in fields where we had few role models and only each other to spur us on: two of us are doctors, one a writer, one a television producer and one a businesswoman, with six children among us mothers. How we did it, we know for sure---we were made stronger by our skating days where we were joined by one heart, and it all began with our Summer at the Inn.