A special guest will be the first to skate on the rink when Sweetland on Ice opens Friday night at Sweetland Amphitheatre.

Myrtice Adcock, formerly known as Myrtice Carpenter, may be one of only a few people who have actually ice skated in LaGrange before. Therefore, it seems only fitting she’ll be the first one to tie up her skates and give the ice a try.

“What does it mean to me?” the now 76-year-old Adock said Wednesday. “I think it’s a pleasure to be invited to be the first to skate, and I think while one needs to exercise caution, it’s a good activity to offer the community.”

In the first few days of 1970, LaGrange was dealing with extremely cold temperatures. In the Jan. 8 copy of the LaGrange Daily News, the headline read “the day the fountain froze.” The next day, Adcock was pictured, skating around the frozen fountain in single degree temperatures.

Adcock said she remembers calling to ask for permission to skate around the Lafayette Fountain.

“When the fountain was frozen and significantly hard enough to skate on, I was called Mayor Gardner Newman and said ‘may I skate on the fountain without being arrested?’” Adcock said. “I skated Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the fountain.”

Adcock was pictured on the front page of the Jan. 9 copy of the LaGrange Daily News with a headline that read “Ice Skating in LaGrange.”

“This is a real thrill or me. I have been going to Atlanta to ice skate,” Adcock said that day.

“This is the first opportunity I’ve had to use my skates in LaGrange.”

Adcock, a Florida native, learned to ice skate through an exchange program sponsored by LaGrange in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.

“I had my own pair of ice skates so I grew up and learned to skate at Jacksonville Coliseum in Jacksonville, Florida. As an adult LaGrange High and a school in Wisconsin had an exchange program. I was selected to be a chaperone with that group of students in 1965,” Adcock said.

“For a souvenir that trip, I treated myself to a pair of ice skates.”

At the time of her now-famous skate around the fountain, Adcock was a physical education teacher at LaGrange High School.

She’s lived in LaGrange her entire adult life, and has skated around the fountain one other time.

In 2010, when the fountain froze, she skated around it again.

A local skate rink means she won’t have to wait several more decades for it to ice over again.

“I won’t have to wait 40 years for it to freeze again,” she joked.

Adcock will headline the rink’s ribbon cutting, which will begin Friday at 3:30 p.m.

The skating rink is being provided and operated by Ice Days Outdoor Ice Skating Rinks and will be open through Feb. 19.

The rink will be open every day, except Mondays and Wednesdays, starting Friday.

On weekdays, it will be open from 5 to 9 p.m., Fridays 5 to 10 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sundays 1 to 8 p.m.

Admission for two hours of skating is $10 including skates.