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Show Baby Sitters Influence Tots One Gave Ice Star First Urge to Skate MILWAUKEE, WIS. Be most careful when you choose your baby sitter. Your baby sitter , when you aren't looking may chart the course of life over which your child will travel, and she may, knowingly knowing-ly or unknowingly, influence the child to enter a business, profession profes-sion or trade that may not exactly fit into your plans. ' So says Phil Hiser, dean of skaters skat-ers in "Holiday on Ice," who does the popular "Memory Lane" waltz with Jeanne Berman and spends the remainder of his time on the ice getting laughs out of the audience audi-ence with his comedy acts. "I know whereof I speak," says Phil. "It was a baby sitter who put me on skates when I was ZVi years old. I've been on skates ever since and I'm 41 now. "My father was on the road with the Frank Warren Minstrels. So I was left in the care of the Irish nursemaid, whose sole ambition was to skate and skate and skate. First she dragged me to the ice pond and hauled me around on a broom. Then she got me a pair of sled skates and it was not long before be-fore she got hockey skates for me. I just had to skate. There was nothing I could do about it." Phil admits he became an addict and he and Bridget never missed an opportunity to indulge in their favorite sport. When he was H years old, Pittsfield, Mass. Phil's home town had a great celebration celebra-tion because one of the local boys had won the national junior championship cham-pionship and another of the local boys had taken second place. "Our champions came home and there was a great - celebration. So that the Pittsfield folks could see how fast these boys really were an exhibition was arranged and all of the best skaters in town were to race against them to be left far behind, of course. |