Mixed skating
It can be seen on every painting of skating that people of different status and different gender are skating with each other. This is in strong contrast with the fact that mixed schools were introduced in the middle of the 20th century in the Netherlands. It happened around the same time that mixed skating died out in The Netherlands. To clarify this I have to mention a type of skating that was done in pairs what disappeared at that time after having been popular for centuries. This was “Schoonrijden” or elegant skating presented in the previous story. In the 19th century and before contact between men and women was practically forbidden but it was rather normal while skating on the ice. One could of course pretend that one was mainly interested in the skating quality of the chosen partner. In the middle of the last century this type of skating disappeared for speed skating and so this easy way of making contact between men and women was gone. Fortunately one can still help girls who have fallen on the ice or teach them not to fall and to skate better, just to be helpful.