I was driving home from Target tonight and 'It Must've Been Love' by Roxette came on the radio. It instantly took me back to the roller rink we frequented when I was little and all of the sudden I wanted some fruit punch and ding dongs. It seemed like they were the venue provided birthday fare unless your parents paid extra.
I got my first Nintendo when I had my own birthday party in the back room with the carpeted walls. I once had a cute boy ask me to skate with him during a slow song and told him no. I remember the disco ball, the hokey pokey, and keeping an eye on a crush from across the rink. I had this same pair of plastic skates and velcro shoes (in blue) at her age (see above). I haven't been to a roller rink in years but I'm pretty sure I can still skate backwards.
What about you? Any stories?
xoxo,
Rachel
Sources: 1) Suzanne Broughton, 2) I Am Krisan, 3) Kristopher Hannum, 4) WeHeartIt, 5) Pup Vs. Robot
83 comments:
Oh my gosh... what a great post! I too owned (and loved) those yellow/blue/orange Fisher Price (I do recall) skates in the bottom picture! I always felt like such a superstar when I had them strapped on over my Keds (or jelly shoes!)... I was a pretty awful skater!
I think I had those same skates at that age too! >_<
My (now) hubby surprised me with a skate party for my birthday last year! It was the first time in like 10 yrs I'd gone and it was awesome :D
so cute im glad you were doing normal kid things back then. i loved the skating rink. still do...sometimes we have 70's bday parties and we rent oiut the whole place! that way we can play our own music.
technology and fame has taken over kids these days!
watch this 3 yr old..its actually hillarious and sad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c81SaYV9hxA
we are actually going to a birthday party at the skating rink this weekend, they reserved the WHOLE RINK for the party. goin all out for the 6 year old party. i remember playing red light, green light and eating red rope and hanging out in the middle under the disco ball. we actually had all our high school dances at the same roller rink so i have sooo many memories there. good times. :)
weeee, roller skating is so classic! Here is my recent roller story: http://ellisondrive.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/roll-with-it/
Jen N.
I loved roller skating!!!
i totally had those same skates when i was younger!!
so cute!
adin my four year old asked if he could have rollar skates today... i told him once it's warmer out and jax is here we'd go get him some and i'd take him to teach him how to skate!
Ahh, skating. Tried those plastic ones (over Keds or jellies, too, Vic) in a friend's basement...skated in the brown roller rink standard issue pairs year after year, and just when I got a pair of inline skates, they put gravel on our road so I couldn't blade outside. So many memories on wheels!
I don't know that many people that really have been roller skating! We went every Wednesday night when I was little and i LOVED it! There are certain songs that just jerk me back into our hometown roller rink too! My skates were aqua blue with hot pink wheels and laces. <3
i loved this SO much! Takes me back!
Its so funny how things go circle. I also spent every friday in middle school at teen skate. Now tomorrow night, I am having a birthday party for my 7 and 5 year old girls. The rink is exactly the same, they even have the same rental skates which is slightly frightening. But I can't wait to skate with them!!
totally had those orange/yellow/blue plastic skates too. classic.
Oh man I used to love that song when I was little. And the music video with the billowing curtains!
The last time I went to the skating rink was probably in about 1992. It was a crappy place called "Skateland" in New Lynn, West Auckland, New Zealand. It was totally bogan. My grandad used to take me I would would skate round and round all by myself for hours, always to go over the ramps they put out for "fun tricks" or the limbo stick which was apparently a favourite. Ahh, Skateland.
Great post!
I went to so many rollerskating parties as a kid, it brings back such memories. I had the same blue and white sneaker skates in the second picture above.
I still love going to the roller rink. Our local rink – The Palace – has the same pastel globe lights as the the rink pictured above. So cool. I go at least once a year with my friend and her four kids. I even considered renting the place out for my 30th birthday, but I chickened out...I still want to do it, but I'm thinking a 35th birthday at a roller rink is probably borderline pathetic.
I know this comment is already too long, but I'll close with one of my strongest (and possibly oldest) roller rink memories: It was at a roller rink in Skate 22 in Union, NJ. On the back wall of the rink, there was a giant projection screen on which they played music videos. Now, whenever I see the Thriller video, I am taken back to that day, when I stood there, leaning on the rink wall, mesmerized by the magic of Michael Jackson.
– Vicki
I was two :p
Oh yeah! I had those - gasp! - adjustable plastic skates too! Love the skating rink! My husband keeps say he wants to go... But that has not yet materialized. Time for a nudge!
Tara - Scoutie Girl
I love roller skating! I played flat track derby for a year and half. However, my favorite is just skating for fun. It's like flying almost!
Those Fisher Price plastic skates were the very first skates I owned!! I begged my parents for a proper pair as I got older and by the time I was allowed, rollerblades were in fashion lol :). Thank you for bringing back lovely memories x
The only roller rink I've been to was in Australia, and I remember they sold pink lemonade slush puppies! Pink lemonade (as well as roller rinks) is a rarity over in the UK, and it tasted so much better than normal lemonade, especially after a hour's roller-skating!
I'm pretty sure that either me or my sister had some second hand fisher price skates when we were younger...
I never went to a rink, but we roller skated on our patio every day all summer. We had a pair of yellow and blue one exactly like the picture for my little sister, and mine were a lot like the picture above it except in pink.
I totally had those skates! :D
Yep, for a couple of years I went to the skateing rink every Saturday morning. I didn't have my own skates but I had made giant yarn pompoms to attach to the rentals. I wish I had a picture of them.
Oh my goodness! Brings back so many skate rink memories!!! I def had some of those awesome plastic skates. Great post <3
i have this last yellow rollers when i have 7 ! :) lovely blog ! visit me !
Aww I just went skating with my daughter last year! I still suck haha! But yes soooo many songs remind me of being back on those school skating trips my school would have monthly!
are we soul mates? lol! I had those SAME skates and I lived at my roller rink. I rollerskated every chance I had and our rink had Friday night jumps where they would play current music and there would be slow skate (which is so funny to me since everyone is so sweaty and falling down everywhere), hokey pokey, and a sweet ramp which they brought out during the song "Jump Around" by House Of Pain. Also, Disco night every saturday night where everyone dressed up and they busted out the disco music and had skate offs and costume contests. Best.times.ever.
I love this post! :)
I broke my arm at a roller skating birthday party. I had to leave the party and spend the next few days in the hospital having the bone reset. I had a cast for 6 weeks. I still remember how much fun it was though and the music, oh the music! I haven't been roller skating in a long time, but my husband and I do go ice skating from time to time.:)
Kara
I had the skates in the last picture. I loved them! Thanks for bringing back good memories of skating all over the tile floors in our house. :)
I did frequent the roller rink from third to fifth grades. Everyone did their parties there. We thought we were so cool and grown up. Lol.
I frequented the roller rink as well and I remember pizza birthday parties. As much as I went I was never able to skate that well and was afraid to stray too far from the wall :)
LOVE it!!! ( :
so much awesome in this post!!
I have had roller derby on the brain for awhile now! I want some retro skates!!
omg i had those too. and i so want to have a 70's skating party! and every one has to dress up.
http://fromthelandofwhimsy.blogspot.com/
I had those skates when I was little too! I loved them. I remember holding my mom's hand as we walked (and I sorta skated) around our block. wow.
Oh my goodness, it's fun to think back to the good ole days of the roller rinks. When I was in high school my gym class took a trip to our old roller rink and somebody found written on the old turtle slide "Ellie+Derek." Yep, that must have been me in 5th grade! ha! I was slightly mortified.
my friends and i went skating saturday night! i wore super awesome socks and wizzed around the rink (i secretly think the sock made me go faster!) <3
Oh wow. I had a dream last night that I was going out for Halloween and for some reason I was wearing roller skates and skating around the city trying to find my friends. Then I saw this post! Funny!
When I was in middle school everyone hung out at Skateland. My mom would almost never let me go. On the rare occasions that she did, I was always so embarrassed because I didn't have the "cool" speed skates. Oh, the troubles of being a preteen.
I had those skates too!
I can never hear "Heal the World" or "From a Distance" without thinking of our local skating spot...aptly named "Cheap Skate." I found out recently that it had been shut down due to its involvement in a child prostitution ring. Nothing like knowing there were predators watching you skate the hokey-pokey to ruin childhood memories!
oh, those skates in the last picture! i got a pair for my fifth birthday. where i grew up the skating rink was about the most glamorous place you could go. :) so many good memories.
oh, i loved roller skating! Those plastic ones in the last picture were dangerous!!
I actually was a roller girl for halloween. I skated around the office all day! It was a lot harder than I remembered, but I didn't fall once! {thank God}
Skating was a huge thing for me too. I'm a bit older (ummmm 1986 was the year I graduated from high school!) But I have plenty of fond skating rink memories. For me- thoughts of the skating rink also bring memories of playing video games like Donkey Kong, Centipede, Pac Man, and my favorite- Tempest. Also getting to couple skate with this awesome guy Chip. Awww. Memories. My friend Angela and I loved Chip and his brother and squealed each time they asked us to skate.
I have actually retained my skating ability after all these years and can skate backwards, spin, and go really fast. My daughter used to be impressed but she is 14 now and thinks that I am an embarrassment to her. My 9 yo son still thinks it's pretty cool ;)
Aww, adorable post, makes me feel happy inside, thanks :)
I had Wonder Woman skates. They were the best. When I was a bit older I had an awesome pair of white skates with red stitching, wheels and laces. I wish I still had those (both pair). Thanks for the trip down memory lane :)
Morgen
eeek! i love skating. i still try and go a couple times a year. i would so wear the first blue pair. funny thing... last night my boyfriend started watching ghost busters and it reminded me of skating because that was the song they played and we had to scream "ghost busters". if we screamed it really loud, then one of the workers would skate over and give us a free pop ticket. i usually got one. i had a loud scream. hehe
Rollerskating! It's always been my favorite activity. I had those Little Tikes skates, with the bell in the bottom so it'd make a ring noise every time you moved your feet! I used to go skating all the time when I was in middle school and high school, every Friday and Saturday night. The last few years or so I hadn't gone, and I missed it so much I made it a goal to go this year, so I did. January 1st! How awesome!
The roller rink I used to go to went out of business and turned into a Family Dollar. BLEH! How depressing. At least we have a rink down where I'm living now!
Oh roller skates! I definitely rocked a pair of those plastic Fisher Price skates when I was about 4. I think it would be hilarious if they made them in adult sizes- kind of the recreational equivalent of adult footie pajamas:)
Oh my heck...I use to work at a Roller Rink in Utah, "back in the day". I still have my white leather skates with a variety of skate covers....much to the dismay of my husband. He would SO LOVE to be rid of those things. My ringtone is Xanadu, so it's safe to say, they are staying put!
Man, I used to have those plastic skates when I was itty bitty. I hated them! Growing up in Tennessee, I went to this one skating rink ALL the time and it was called Rainbow Skating Rink. How awesome of a name is that?
I remember going for school field trips, daycare field trips, girl scouts, and parties. I was a pretty dang good skater, though I never skated backwards because I was afraid to. What you mentioned of your memories of skating is pretty much just like mine -- hokey pokey (and other games), disco balls, and couples skate time.
In Michigan I haven't found a rink that can hold a candle to Rainbow. And now is the time that I really want to skate, and that's because I've become really interested in Roller Derby. One of my high school friends is on a team for her school (U of M Flint) and it makes me want to be on the team so bad. I haven't skated in so long, but I know I'm still as good as I was as a kid with all the tricks/speed skating I used to do. Sigh.
i still rollerskate :-) central park has roller dancing on the weekends on the summers- here are a pic of my skates:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/icedgrandesoylatte/3608932442/in/set-72157619454125508/
come visit and we can skate!!!
and fyi, i totally had those fisher price ones too!
i went on a date with a boy who worked at a roller skating rink. he had the keys so we went really late at night, after it closed and skated around to weezer and elo. wonderful date.
this post definitely brought back some wonderful memories! i had a pair of the orange/blue skates - and then graduated to a pretty pair of white skates with pink wheels! I LOVED them!
whoa. i had those skates too! so funny because i am really bad at roller skating. but, thanks for the trip down memory lane. i loved that song too!
We went rollerskating for my 22nd birthday party last year and it was A BLAST. Funnest birthday of my life.
When I think of our skating rink... I think of couples skate, singing with my friends, and looking at boys! They always played "catch me im falling" by Pretty Poison. That song takes me back to the skating rink. So funny!
Love the first photo! The absolute earliest memory I can recall was from when I was a toddler and went to a roller rink with my mom. I remember she was tying the laces on my Barbie roller skates and I was studying the crazy pattern in the carpeting. Then I looked up and saw another little girl with the same skates. We were such trendsetters :)
Ditto! Ditto! Ditto!
I had those exact same skates, a boy once asked me to slow skate with him and I said no (even when I meant yes), eyeing a crush all night from across the room and hokey pokey!! Ahhh! Memories!
xoxo Julie
oh my goodness. what a great song!
and i love roller skating. my boyfriend takes me to the one off glenstone every once in awhile and i love it. it's weird to see twelve year olds having "drama" but the skating is fun, haha.
and carpeted walls? i think every rink had a room like that!
Sadly I still have my Roxette cassette;) Totally loved the skating rink too. Thanks for the fun memories.
Roller Dome...roller rink and arcade with a snack bar and carpet everywhere! I had Rainbow Brite roller skates with her picture and every wheel was a different color. I just watched Whip It last night and now all I want to do is go roller skating.
First song a skated with a boy was Total Eclipse of the Heart!
We had a Roller Rink called The Skate Key. It was the best place to go on a Saturday afternoon. I was in the Girls Scouts and we frequently made trips there. I only remember having my birthday there once.
When I got older, they moved the rink further downtown and in a not so great area. It because more of a night club and there were fights and such there almost every Saturday night. They eventully closed it down.
I don't think there are any Roller Rinks in the area. I have to check, I feel like skating now ...
1986!?!? OMG! Those pictures remind me of my childhood - from about 1977-1982! I was skating so Hall & Oates at my skating party!
The seventh grade love of my life, Scott, asked me to couple skate, and I said yes!! That was Valentines Day, 1992. We stayed together for a couple years but then broke up just before 10th grade. I ran into him in college years later, and my heart went pitter patter once more, but nothing ever became of it!
its being a love affair since I was 8......skating + me + now I have introduced my Ruby too it too.
She scored some yellow skates for xmas......she loves them! (photos on my blog of her + them).
I had tie on skates + of course always wished for sneaker skates but I used them so much I wore the rubber off the wheels.
Planning a roller skating birthday party this year!!.....she can't....I can't wait!!
You always talk about the best things!! :)
It was our class fun day in 6th grade and we went roller skating for the afternoon. I was hard core crushing on James, but I swear he had never looked twice at me. He was skating in front of me, but I was too busy concentrating on my smooth skating skills to notice him standing there, much less see him turn around and stop- causing me to tumble down right on top of him! It was one of those linger there moments like in the movies, and I was too embarrassed and shocked to get up off of him. He must have liked it, though, because the next week he "asked me out." And we dated on and off until I was a Sophomore in highschool. :)
anytime i hear 'pump up the jam'(which is rare)i think of speed skating. they always played it when we would go out for the speed skating time. loved it. i could go as fast as i want and none of the floor guards could yell at me. ha ha.
LOVE this post. I recently used one of the same pics in one of mine: http://agirlandacamera.blogspot.com/2010/01/2010.html
I totally had those Fisher Price skates and I LIVED for going to the skating rink. I wouldn't stop making the rounds until their were blisters on my heels. Also, I wanted to be Olivia Newton John in Xanadu. I was convinced that the best way to fall in love was with four wheels on each foot!!!
i had a pair of those plastic skates too! totally forgot about those!
i remember when the skating rink was a hip hangout spot in junior high. i don't know if i've been to one since! oh, memories...
um, this is awesome. i just remember the songs! tiffany/i think we're alone now, debbie gibson/only in my dreams, jody watley/looking for a new love ... and bananarama + madonna + bon jovi and MJ. sweaty hands. and our couples' skate game was called 'snowball.' (is that weird?) like the boys lined up on one wall the the girls on the other and then you had to wait to get picked.
Dude I'm totally in the wrong decade...=( hehe.
Oooo I had those exact same skates too! Just seeing that pic of the little girl putting them on took me back like 18 years... Looooove!
Oh yeah, our skate park was called "Happy Wheels" and I would always win the limbo competition, HA!
those yellow and blue skates were the best- i had a pair too and that brings back memories! my grandparents bought them for me on one of their rare visits and they taught me how to skate. i loved how they strapped over your shoes...
www.reworkedart.blogspot.com
Ha! I totally remember skating at the skating rink when I was little. AND I remember turning down a cute boy during the couples skate. Maybe my life would be a little different if I hadn't...
Margaret
so cute! i used to have those yellow and blue velcro skates too. felt like a rock star, skating to van halen's "jump" in my parent's basement. super fun to hear others had them too. xo, juliette
I remember those skates! Those were awesome! Thanks for taking me down memory lane.
Hello, my name is Stacey & I am new to your blog!
This was so funny . . . I remember doing the hokey pokey in skates! I found a pair of those same skates at a thrift shop for $1 & forced my son to try them on. . . he was scared of them!?
& thank you for getting Roxette stuck in my head . . Lay a wisper on my pillow . . .
Good memories. I was quite good at rollerskate limbo, as I was the shortest girl in my class. I won many a glow stick back in the day. :)
awww love these photos!
postcardsfromdreamland.blogspot.com
I had the exact same roller skates!! xoxo tigerlillyquinn.blogspot.com
Wow, this took me back! I remember all those things too and that song! That song played every time I skated. I usually tagged along with my older sister because my parents made her take me! lol. Great post.
oh my gosh, I had those same skates in the last picture. I remember when i was three or four and I'd walk around in them, they weren't so good for rolling, but they were great fun...i wonder if my mom kept them?!?!?!?
I wanted to go rollerskating for my bachelorette party, we did, and it was awesome!
When I was in 3rd grade, we had to draw a picture of what we wanted to be when we grew up. I was in Catholic school so all the girls wanted to be nurses or teachers and the boys - professional sports players or priests. I drew me as a DJ in a roller skating rink. Ah, I miss the 80's.
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