Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A Blast From The Past

Owen had a birthday party to go to last weekend.  I drew the short end of the stick and took him.  It was at a roller rink so I decided to stay and help him.

It was like taking a step back into time.  I'm pretty sure that the rink hadn't been updated since the 1970's.  Except for the "baby rink" where you would learn to skate (ie - fall on your a double snakes) was now gone.  In it's place was a spot for the birthday parties. 

Pretty sure that they sell the same nasty "roller rink pizza" and suicide sodas that we drank too.  They did the hokey pokey (well, they not Owen because he could barely stand on his skates) and some other games that put me into a time warp. 

At least they weren't playing Disco Duck, YMCA or Freeze Frame.  LOL

So I figured out that by the time I was Owen's age, I was a roller rink rat.  Susan and I had been skating since we were four.  We were on the speed skating team in kindergarten and by the time I was his age, my folks were dropping us off at the rink on the weekends so we could hang out with our friends.  (And they could hang out with theirs.  LOL)

So anyway, I walked him --- more like carried him --- around the rink trying to keep him upright.  All the while he was goofing and trying to fall.  Ugh.  So then I decided that I would get a pair of skates and give it a try myself.

Instead of the cool speed skates with BAPP (BIG A$$ POM POMS) that I use to have, I had to rent a pair.



Haha.  I'm pretty sure that they've had these skates since the 1970's too.

So, I decided I better take a spin or two around the rink before I went back to Owen because he would surely pull me down with skates on.  It took me a few times around to get my legs under me but once I did, I was fine.

Well.  *I* was fine.  It was all of the landmines around me that were trying to bring me down.  You know, kids dropping like flies right in front of me.  Or the parent who thought that it was a good idea to skate carrying their child...when they couldn't barely skate themselves.

The best were the people that would hold hands and form a chain across the lane.  If you were lucky, they didn't all go down.  Because once one went down, they all went down.

And it was always right in front of me.  LOL

Or the kids who skates completely out of control.  In the wrong direction.  Coming straight at you with limbs flailing.  

But I didn't fall.  Oh.  I was skating in defensive mode with my hands up.  Looking like an NFL wide receiver waiting for a ball.  But I didn't fall.

We did have fun.  (Probably because I didn't fall.  It was so much more fun to fall back then.)  It was a total blast from the past.  Definitely going to have to take the kids back.

2 comments:

ginny said...

Good thing you didn't have on those black speed skates!! Was Owen impressed that you could skate without falling?

Kim Eckhardt said...

Yep. He was! Those black speed skates were the bomb diggity. ;)