Four girls with ice skates walk down a street in New York’s Chinatown.  It’s 1965, Mott Street, a sunny day—and late April, which heightens the incongruity of what we’re seeing.  While the setting grounds them to their roots and history, the girls are American and of the moment, with loose hair styles, jackets, and dungarees.  The photographer, Ed Ford of the New York World Telegram & Sun, captured a carefree, top-of-the-world moment effectively.

Since ice skating originated in Northern Europe and developed as a result of American and European innovations, the ice skates are a token of westernization (as well as a capacity to have fun).

Image: from this source.

This is the second in an occasional series on ice-skating.
  Click back and forward to see the others.