Flashback

As you can tell, they sell red slushies at the snack bar

We took the kid rollerskating yesterday afternoon. I think half the town was there for the matinee session (when you live in the land of ice and snow, the weekend entertainment options are limited at best).

At first we put our little newbie skater in traditional skates, but the wheels spun a bit too efficiently and she could not keep her feet under her to save her life. The rink also offers Fisher Price skates that fit over the shoes, so we swapped for those. The second pair worked a lot better, and gave her a modicum of traction. Towards the end, she actually started to get a bit cocky and skated on her own for a few yards at a stretch.

I have to tell you: I love rollerskating. I can't wait for A to learn how to skate proficiently so that I can take her to the rink regularly and pretend that I'm there for her benefit. My rollerskating career got off to an inauspicious start when I broke my arm in the mid-70's (I tripped over a wagon handle while out skating), but by the mid-80's I was spending every weekend at the rink. I wore a comb in my back pocket, which was mandatory at that time, and waited for a dark-haired boy named Mike Matheny to ask me to skate. Eventually he did, but he did not know how to skate backwards and that really put a damper on the ol' "couple's skate." My friend Rachel made "woo woo" noises at us from the sidelines. (Rachel, remember the time your mom picked us up and ran over my foot with her car? I still don't know how I managed not to have any broken toes from that.)

I was awash in flashbacks during our skating session yesterday. The lady who owns our local rollarama is a hoot. I don't know how old she is, but I'm guessing she is a grandma and, probably, the fittest grandma in town. She zooms around on her skates and one minute she is helping you find the right size skate and the next minute she is holding up the limbo bar out on the skate floor. She is one of those people who just genuinely loves kids and it shows. Just don't come in there with gum in your mouth because, as far as I can tell, that is the one thing that really pisses her off.

The joint opened in 1972 and although I didn't live here at that time, I have to suspect that not much has changed. The black carpeting has neon swirls on it, so I'm guessing it was re-done sometime in the 80's. Behind the snack bar, they sell things like orange rabbit's foot key chains and candy necklaces. Being there reminded me so much of the rink I frequented when I was in junior high. They played the "Ghostbusters" theme song yesterday, which added to the air of nostalgia quite a bit. I felt like I wanted to attempt to Shoot the Duck or something. I wanted pompoms on my skates, just like my mom used to make for me.

I left my daughter with her dad so that I could skate around by myself for a while. I built up some speed and flew past kids and parents alike. I attempted cross-overs around the turn (though for some reason I can do them when going clockwise, but not counter-clockwise). I skated backwards a bit, just to see if I still could. I wonder if Mike Matheny ever learned how.

This was taken about a half second before they both went down.