DearDiary Logo
Public DiariesHomeLogin

More Memories
Wed Jul 18 2007

The late 70’s and early 80’s brought about a phenomenon not seen since. An environment in which many teens and tweens sought out and frequented as often as they could get transportation to and from this youth haven. I’m talking about… the Roller Rink. While the Roller Rink had been around for a while, the Disco Scene brought about changes to it that were inexplicable. For those of us kids not old enough to hit the Disco Scene, the Roller Rink was the next best thing.

Roller skating became a place to escape the parental units and hang with your friends, where the bathrooms were (for the most part) clean and the snack bar had the glorious junk food items parents tried to keep out of their houses and away from their children. In one evening of rolling around in circles I could meet cute guys and munch on an order of nachos with my friends. Most importantly, if I was out roller skating, I wasn’t doing homework. Even more important than that, I wasn’t stuck watching The Love Boat with my folks! Let’s face it; any opportunity to miss The Love Boat was worth taking.

The Roller Rink was an experience worth having. My kids don’t have the same kind of opportunity as, quite frankly, the local Roller Rinks scare the bejeebers out of me. They have other opportunities that I hope they are able to look back on with the same fondness I have for my Roller Rink memories.

C’mon everyone, join me out on the floor to Crack the Whip, someone put the Bee Gee's on the record player and let's boogie down!

4 Comments
  • From:
    Pragmatist (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Jul 19 2007
    We have a roller rink fairly close to where I live. My "after school girls" begged me into taking them one afternoon. Not a bad place. But the music was so loud, and I kept asking the DJ to turn it down. He would for awhile, then it would be blasting. I was about to go out of my mind, so the girls had their afternoon cut short.

    The skate crowd was OK, but the music was intolerable!!!!

    Does anybody reading this have a hearing problem called recruitment?

    Bless the day
  • From:
    Kaliko88 (Legacy)
    On:
    Thu Jul 19 2007
    Alligator Rock! :)
  • From:
    Waterspriteflying (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Jul 20 2007
    Oh, does this bring back memories! I wanna go back!

    Hmmm. Must find time to go to Oaks Park, and someone to go along who won't laugh too hard at me and what's left of my ability to stay upright, lol.

    Hugs,
    Ani
  • From:
    Ksmiley (Legacy)
    On:
    Fri Jul 20 2007
    Ah, I may only be 37 years old, but I remember the days of the roller rink and the 80's. Indeed, today I only have fond memories of the roller rink that no longer exists here in Janesville, Wisconsin now and hasn't for a long time now. I miss the old days of rollerskating but I cannot even do that anymore, lol. I remember during my middle school years in '82, '83, and '84 when I attended Milton, Wisconsin's middle school, one of our fun days was to go to the roller rink and rollerskate. In my 6th grade year, my homeroom teacher paid attention to my falling and getting right up and again and skating around that rink over and over again. I ended up getting what my 6th grade teacher called a "skate" gram for courage and ongoing skating he has seen in only a few students in his lifetime teaching. The neatest thing about that memory is the fact that my 6th grade teacher remembers that faithful day and that "skate gram" to this day as well as I do. What a fond memory. I have so many memories, both good and not so good, and I think I better get those memories written down, huh? Something for me to think seriously about, that's for sure.