I have a confession to make and it involves a disco ball.
See? I told you.
I realize the most realistic scenario to explain the presence of a disco ball in my life is that I’ve been spending my Tuesday afternoons filming a remake of Saturday Night Fever and all I can say to that is DON’T I WISH. The truth is we’ve been spending the lion’s share of our Tuesday afternoons at the Rollercade.
I know.
It all started this summer when Caroline was invited to a birthday party at the Rollercade and she fell deeply, madly in love with rollerskating. And, really, who can blame her? If rollerskating doesn’t have an irresistible pull on the heart of people everywhere, then how do you explain the Olivia Newton-John classic, Xanadu?
I totally understand where she’s coming from, man, (Why am I talking like it’s 1976?) because once a girl discovers the feel of the wind blowing through her hair while she fast skates around the rink, it’s hard to stay away.
After her initial introduction to skating, she immediately began to beg to go back again. Fortunately for her, one of her friend’s moms emailed me to let me know that Tuesdays are half-price day and that a group from school planned to start meeting there almost every week.
So for the last month or so, we’ve spent several Tuesday afternoons skating. And yesterday was no different.
Except that I really didn’t feel like going to the Rollercade. There are just those rare days when a girl isn’t in the mood for the flashing lights of a disco ball, Michael Jackson music blaring overhead and the smell of old skates. I call those days Tuesdays.
But I’d promised we’d go and that she could bring a friend. So after school I brought the girls home for a quick snack, asked them sixteen times if they needed to go to the bathroom before we left, and then packed them in the car and headed to the rink to skate it out.
I decided I was going to forgo skating for the day and just watch them from a terribly uncomfortable bench on the side of the rink, but I told them to wave at me if they needed help. Just when Caroline got to the furthest point away from me, she began to wave. I walked over to see what the problem was and she informed me she needed to go to the bathroom. Apparently she didn’t hear any of the sixteen times I’d asked before we left the house.
And here’s the worst thing about the Rollercade, there are no doors on the bathroom stalls. I don’t think I need to elaborate on all the ways that disturbs me. Bathrooms need doors. I have no doubt that would have been one of the ten commandments if the Israelites had public restrooms in the desert.
Anyway, I escorted her to the restroom and then she fell on the way out and then she didn’t want to skate anymore unless I was going to skate too and so I paid the extra $2.50 to rent skates and put them on and then she decided she was fine and when could we order some nachos and she didn’t want me to skate anywhere near her and I could just free skate by myself.
(Do you see how that run-on sentence just wore you out? That’s because I’m trying to do the same thing to your brain that the entire experience did to mine.)
The good news is about that time the computer began to play Boogie Shoes by KC and The Sunshine Band. If you can be in a bad mood when KC and The Sunshine Band plays, well then my condolences. Maybe it will help if I tell you I did a tap dance routine to that very song when I was in fourth grade and wore a chocolate brown leotard with gold fringe, gold tap shoes, and an enormous gold headpiece. (Hello, 1979.) Needless to say, I was fierce.
I told the girls they could eat pizza from the snackbar for dinner. When I placed my order for four slices of pizza, the girl behind the counter informed me they don’t sell pizza by the slice on weekdays and I’d need to order the whole pizza.
“How much is that?”
“Nine dollars.”
“Sold. I’d like a pepperoni pizza, please.”
And with that, she took my money, reached into a mini-freezer and pulled out a frozen HEB pepperoni pizza that I happen to know for a fact costs $2.50 at the store. If I could do the math I’d tell you the percentage of that mark up, but I can’t do the math so I’ll just say IT’S A LOT. Of course I also noticed that they charge $2.00 for a pickle which is criminal and also why I’ve decided to get into the concession stand business.
Once the pizza was finally ready, she pulled it out of the oven and handed it to me without cutting it, so I asked in my nicest voice if she could please cut my $9.00 pizza into slices and she did, although she was a little surly about it. I really can’t blame her though. I’d be surly too if I had to wear a uniform that made me look like a referee. That’s why I never pursued a career with Footlocker. Well, that and my complete phobia regarding other people’s feet.
And so with that, we sat down to a nutritious, healthy dinner that will cause moms everywhere to admire my parenting prowess.
The girls had a little bit more time to skate once they were finished eating and Caroline even managed to find a sweet twelve-year-old girl who helped her finally let go of the wall and begin to actually skate a little bit. And I’m telling you, this girl could skate. She even played the air drums while she zoomed around the rink which in the land of the Rollercade is the equivalent to being the queen.
Just ask Olivia Newton-John.
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This brings back a whole lot of great roller skating memories. Except I grew up in California and we skated on the sidewalks and back and forth to school. I loved, loved, loved my skates.
That dinner is completely well-rounded. I mean look at the chips and the pizza-both round! There are vegetables (TOMATO sauce and CORN chips), protein in the pepperoni, calcium in the cheese, and your bread/cereal category is covered by the pizza crust.
I say all this to excuse the fact that I called pickles a vegetable so I could serve our dinner of quesadillas, pineapple chunks and pickles on paper plates with no silverware so I could avoid doing more dishes.
Oh my, Caroline is growing up!!!! She looks like a preteen now and not a little girl anymore!!!!
I used to LOVE rollerskating. Started out on the sidewalk in front of our house wearing clamp on skates that you adjust with a key. Then in Jr. High we graduated up to an actual roller rink with rentable shoe skates.
Fun times.
Especially when a boy asked you for a couple skate – - – - don’t close your eyes for a minute, because THAT will be NEXT for Caroline too!!!!
I remember going to the roller rink as a kid too. Such fun times.
Ah roller skating – I wasn’t a huge fan but went so I could skate (if I was lucky) with a boy and hold his hand. See what you can now look forward to?
And what is the yellow food on the table? I recognize the pizza but I’m not sure what that other obviously nutritious choice is —-
Ours was called Roller-Rama. That’s where I fell for a fair haired boy named Corky skating to Another One Bites the Dust circa 1982. I don’t know if it was the smell of the fresh, salted pretzels hanging in the contamination box at the concession stand or the stench of sweaty 11 yr old boy, but I was in love! And get this…he could skate backwards AND “shoot the duck!” We’d be together forever… or at least until my Mom picked me up that night. Ahhhhh….thanks for the memories!
Classic.
Ah, the skating rink. How could something that was so much a part of our lives in the 70′s be so NOT a part of the lives of our children?
My two oldest went to homeschool days on every other Friday. They became excellent skaters. They don’t have that rink anymore so my poor 7yo hasn’t ‘skated’ since he was three. So sad.
Songs that immediately take me back to the skating rink when I hear them:
“I Can Help” by Billy Swan
“Hear the Band” by Seals and Croft
“Best of My Love” by the Eagles and that other group of women.
For some reason I can’t think of the fast songs…might have something to do with the lights going down and the disco ball and couples skating with my crush who had nothing to do with me except at the skating rink.
I was never a huge rollerskater down at Sparkles, I was more the kind to sit on one of the carpet-covered swirly benches straight out of Hugh Hefner’s romper room and chat because I was faaaar too cool to skate. Right.
360% mark-up on that pizza, by the way.
How did I combine “Hugh Hefner” and “romper room?” That made no sense. Sorry. The instant oatmeal must have congealed my brain.
Our skating rink was Skateland USA…complete with blue poly-something or other floor and disco ball! Oddly enough, when my kids came through the skating phase, Skateland was still in business (albeit without the blue floor which the kids found hilarious when I told them about it!)…but the disco ball was still there.
Ah, the memories!
Did you know roller derby is the fastest growing women’s sport? My SIL is in a league and loves it. I knew Caroline was on the cutting edge. PS: The water balances out that dinner.
A bathroom+skates+no doors is just a recipe for disaster, if you ask me. Your post took me back to my elementary school days, where you were nobody if you weren’t at Skateland on Tuesday afternoons/nights to skate around the rink in peg-legged jeans and slap bracelets. Caroline looks adorable in her skates, exuding confidence as she casually leans against the neon purple wall. Before you know it, she’ll be the one doing air drums on the rink.
I always wanted to have my birthday party at the roller rink because the mascots would push you around in this gigantic roller skate and you got all the attention…but I never did because my parents wouldn’t pony up for a roller rink party. Then when I got in middle school, I had a friend who went to the skating rink every Friday night. My parents would never let me go with her (only now do I realize they knew better–middle school kids at the rink=trouble). I just thought they had something against the roller rink!
Hey! You had bottled water with that dinner of champions..that makes it healthy in my book
Wait a minute–you get to go to a skating rink that plays Michael Jackson? Last time I went to a rink, all they played was hip-hop, and I maintain that it is impossible to skate to any playlist that does not include Hall & Oates singing “Private Eyes.” But I’d make an exception for Michael Jackson!
I always wondered if it was just our skating rink that didn’t have doors in the bathrooms. Thanks for clearing that up!
The song that takes me back to the rink is Every Little Step by Bobby Brown.
Woman I just have to know if Rollercade hands out dyed rabbits’ feet for winning various races or Shoot the Duck like they did back in the day at Rollerland West and Silver Wheel in Fort Worth? Good times…I actually went to a retro party at Rollerland West recently and was alarmed to find that the deejay (aka backwards skating king) was in his 30′s. Wondered if it was the same guy. And btw the walls there still had some rockin’ purple carpet on it. So check into the rabbits’ feet. Caroline could display them on a bulletin board like I did or worse, hook them on her beltloop and sport it to school. lol. But I believe you need “wings” in your hair to really pull that off.
Kirby
Oooh,girl. Just wait ’til she starts skating backwards! Fun Times and great memories.
It would seem skating rinks look EXACTLY the same whether in Tennessee or Texas. I nearly had a panic attack reading this post and thought I should give you a heads up that skating can be hazardous to your health. Last May I went with my kids and some others from church and while I was doing my fast skate decided to exit the floor without slowing down. This was a mistake. You see the floor doesn’t have a smooth transition to the carpet and I managed to break all three bones in my ankle and dislocate it as well, thus ending all my hopes of spending the entire summer poolside.
So much for hearing Jessie’s Girl and wanting to head to the skating rink. Skating is dead to me!
You’ve been warned!
Why do skating rinks have bright 80s/90s colors? Always baffles me. They all look just alike. I’m just impressed with how clean the table was! Teenagers who work at skating rinks never want to clean the tables:)
Oh my stinking word.
Ava just got an invite for a b-day party at a skating rink next week. I promptly threw it in the trash.
AHHH! Don’t they know that missing doors on bathroom stalls is what bad dreams are made of???!!! Or maybe that’s just my reoccurring bad dream…
At least you didn’t give the kids Diet coke with their dinner – I seriously have a friend who does that. Let me just tell you, THEY DO NOT NEED IT!! I always wished I could skate better. I never got that stopping thing down and would try to slow down and head for a wall near the exit without bouncing too hard off of it. Good memories, nonetheless.
Oh my. That carpet… straight out of a bad drug trip. Just scary.
I loved every thing about this post! It brings back such great memories of every Saturday of my life from first through sixth grade! (Except our rink had doors in the bathroom.) You’re a cool mom and a great sport.
Loved this…I have many happy memories of the skating rink (a few nightmares too ) but mostly happy memories.
My sisters and I went once and it was ‘gospel night’…we didn’t know it until after we were ‘locked in’…seriously the message went like this-”you’ve had your fun, now you’re going to hear about hell and damnation” We can laugh about it now but back then, not so much.
I had a birthday party at Fun Time Skating Rink when I was young. Two of my friends and I rented it out. We were so cool.
The best part of going roller skating is the end- I always liked to take my skates of before everyone else so I could stand there and not be a giant. I got to see how it felt to be normal sized.
Oh good heavens, memories, indeed! And what’s with the no bathroom doors!? Our Wizard Wheels is the same way! My daughter is perpetually invited to that 200 year old skating rink for birthday parties and I cringe at the thought. UGH. It even SMELLS the same as it did when I was her age!
You just brought back a flood of memories to me! I went to the rollercade every Friday night as a pre-teen. Oh the good ole’ days huh?
My song was The Locomotion by Grand Funk Railroad. To this day I still get the urge to skate when I hear it!
When I was in high school, our church met in a roller skating rink. We jokingly called ourselves “holy rollers” and were always amused when the disco ball and strobe lights went off randomly during a sermon.
This particular rink, the bathroom stalls had doors, but the actual bathroom itself didn’t. There was no “buffer zone.”
So when I came down with a stomach bug one Sunday morning, I told my dad I would rather explode internally than use that bathroom IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH CROWD and insisted he take me home. I cried the whole way home and begged him to drive faster, but we made it before I did actually explode.
I’m sure I did irreparable harm to my innards that day, all because that stupid skating rink refused to be civilized and include doors on the bathrooms.
What memories! I had my 12th birthday party at the Roll Arena and I got cute pom-poms for my skates with little jingle-bells in the middle. I remember skating to Kool and the Gang’s Ladies Night.
Water bottles :: proof that you are rocking the parenting prowess because every awesome mom knows that water makes anything a healthy, balanced meal.
But … uh … didn’t you say you ordered a pepperoni pizza? Well then, missy. Why are there only, like, FIVE little pepperonis on said pizza? Did you pick!them!off! ?? (If you did? MORE proof that you’re a great mom!)
I’ve always equated the skating rink with hickeys and Bonne Bell Dr. Pepper lipsmacker. I don’t know why.
This post couldn’t have been any better! Brought back a tucked-away memory of sight, sound, and, you are so right, even smell.
Seriously…is every skate center decorated the same? Purple paint and the glow-in-the-dark swirls on the carpet… classic! My favorite song to skate to was Celebration by Kool & The Gang…”Yahoo! It’s a celebration!” Yea, I’ll be singing that one all day.
Well now, you DO have water there for her to drink. I’d say that’s healthy.
OH how you reach into my soul and pull out nostalgia. Because that’s where nostalgia lives, right?
Roller City, formerly Skate City of Baton Rouge, was my hang out for way too many years (but now–I feel it necessary to tell you–it’s just a mattress liquidation place and gone is the skating rink. gone, gone, gone leaving me with a huge whole inside.) but I was still skating when skating wasn’t cool. Actually, I was watching most of the time although I did love to skate, but felt inferior to all of those people fast skating and beating their air drums like they owned the rink.
But KC and The Sunshine Band–WHO DOESN’T LOVE THEM? Sweet memories!
I hope my children like roller skating. That sounds so fun except for the $9 HEB pizza.
So I guess our local roller rink isn’t the only one without doors on the bathroom stalls! But, sadly, ours plays songs that make me blush rather than fun songs from the 70s. (So we only go when it’s rented out and the music is chosen by the group renting it.)
Why do roller skating and ice skating rinks stay the same for decades? It is like walking into a time warp when you enter those places.
You would think with all the extra money they could afford some new doors!
When I was 25 and having a quarter life crisis, I decided to do and try all the things I was deprived of as a child. I know, the world is SO unfair. One of those things was tap lessons, and the routine we learned in our sad little adult class was to Boogie Shoes! Sad that my 25 year old self can relate to your 9 year old self…
You are cracking me up!
And as for the nutritious dinner, looks like you’ve got all 4 food groups represented AND drinking water… What’s not to love??!?!!?
Oh the time it took to arrange getting there…my mom will drive if yours will pick up! And it’s where a boy put his arm around me for the first time-my sister could not wait to share that news in the car on the way home.
Thanks for the memories.
The BEST birthday present I ever got was Strawberry Shortcake roller skates. I wore the heck out of those!!
“Angel in a Centerfold” J Gyles Band the ultimate song and anything by Air Supply or Journey for the couples skate. I used to daydream about me being the rink skating queen….
Ha, LOVE it!! LOL
I guess I know where you’ll be next week too, and next time bring your own pizza!!!! LOL
I have to say that is a fantastic dinner, and should be served 1-2 times a week!
I used to love to roller skate! Two words…Great Skate! It was the place to be when I was growing up. And yes the breeze in your hair as you sped around and around was awesome!! Thanks for bringing back some great memories today.
Ahhhh…the days of the roller rink. I don’t even think our town has one anymore! What I’d give to put on my white skates with green wheels, green stoppers and hot pink pom-poms again. But then again, it was only the “icky” boys who ever asked me to skate…the ones with sweaty hands who could barely let go of the wall and just generally brought me down seeing as I couldn’t very well show off my mad skating-in-a-circle skills while trying to keep his sorry behind from falling over. Good times!
Oh my gawsh! This could be one of the best posts EVER!
Okay…so maybe I am rethinking wanting to take my kiddos rollerskating. We don’t have one in our area…maybe I am glad. My husband was a youth pastor in Houston and we used to take the Jr.Highers a couple times a year…good times! Ha Ha!
Skate Center?? We skated every Sunday around the school gym—with organ music. But, I had my own skates. White high tops with the biggest hand made pompoms you could imagine. Boss.
Its nice to see that the Roller Rink decor is universal. The carpet and wall in the pic you took could be at any number of roller establishments in Texas. The description of the bathroom and concession stand also sounds pretty familiar.
Recently, Jared attended a skate party at Mannings – Texas on Wheels. He noticed a kid with some really cool roller blades. Well, naturally, the kid had ordered them from Mannings, and Jared was able to locate the very catalog, and he picked out the very pair that he wanted for his birthday, AND they were only $350. Yeah, right.
Less than a week later, he talked the ex into a pair of roller blades from Mannings, although S only went for the $100 pair…which are still in the box on his bedroom floor…unopened…and his birthday was in September. I could have guessed that would happen since Jared hasn’t skated or asked to skate in the last MANY years.
So. STINKIN’ Funny!!!! Love it! Roller skating definitely brings back some memories.
Ahhh roller skating…the words never fail to make me think of Funkytown! I swear they played that song every hour….”won’t you take me to …FUNKYTOWN!” I’ll be hearing that song in my head the rest of the evening.
Oh…the memories! I loved the roller rink…and I rocked back in the day, with my hot pink satin jacket and my roller skates with flourescent show strings…my long hair blowing behind me as I flew gracefully around the rink! But, you know…I learned something about roller skating my senior year. Most of my skating days took place in elementary and middle school. Years later, we had our after prom activities at the bowling alley and then the roller rink. Apparently, roller skating is not like riding a bike, because I couldn’t do it at all! I was falling all over and my (now) husband and I were cracking up as we both stumbled along. It was fun, but I was no Olivia that night! Thanks for this memory-inducing post!
Oh…the memories! I loved the roller rink…and I rocked back in the day, with my hot pink satin jacket and my roller skates with flourescent shoe strings…my long hair blowing behind me as I flew gracefully around the rink, shaking it to Cool and the Gang! But, you know…I learned something about roller skating my senior year. Most of my skating days took place in elementary and middle school. Years later, we had our after prom activities at the bowling alley and then the roller rink. Apparently, roller skating is not like riding a bike, because I couldn’t do it at all! I was falling all over and my (now) husband and I were cracking up as we both stumbled along. It was fun, but I was no Olivia that night! Thanks for this memory-inducing post!
Our church group went every Monday night when I was in high school and I could do all the tricks.
Fast forward twenty years when my 7 year old son wants to have his B-day party at Skateland. I was certain I could still do all the tricks.
Let’s just say, I had to have a cat scan the next day. Pitiful.
Oh, you take me back. Back to 1974 when the Skating Rink had a wooden floor, and back to 1994 when I was the parent of a 5 and 8 year old and me and another insane mother took the children’s group from church to the skating rink every saturday. I have a permanent indentation in the shin bone of my left leg due to leading the “snake” (train, highwaytohell, whatever) one day and being the last to fall in the domino effect and landing on the wheel of the 9 year old girl who drug me down with her. Be careful! That was my contribution to the mind-numbing run on sentence!
Love your blog, read every day and never comment, but this one had me laughing out loud. I’m glad to know the next generation is learning to enjoy the unique culture of the roller rink! Last time I skated was in college and it took a week to recover from that. Ah, the memories.
Note to self.
NEVER visit a roller skating rink. One of my fundamental requirements is bathroom doors. I’m fussy like that.
Why on earth is there a trend of doorless bathrooms at these rinks??
Well, you did have water bottles with that nutritious dinner!
I STILL love to rollerskate/rollerblade. No lie.
If this doesn’t bring back some fuzzy memories. My fourth grade birthday party. Couples skating with the cutest boy in the class. Trading those long handled combs that we would keep in our back pockets. As you can see, I was also fierce in 1980.
For those wondering why there aren’t doors on the stalls, it’s to deter both graffiti and minors having, um, relations in the stalls. No lie.
Ahhhh the memories. I love to roller skate. Saturday my kids picked out a CD at Target. 70s Roller Disco. S A T U R D AY Night! Singing at the top of their lungs. Makes me smile.
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