Did you hang out at the roller skating rink when you were a kid?

[Cadence]

Remember the big four wheel skates? They used to play the song disco duck and everyone would get down on one skate. They also played pop music and then there was the "moonlight" skate. I was such a dork I couldn't pick my foot up around the turns, you know like the good skaters, so I would scoot my right foot out repeatedly and barely make the turn each time.
Did anyone else have this game where the girls would put a comb in their back pocket and the boys would chase them trying to get it?
What else do you remember?

[Florida_Geek]

1. comb in their back pocket and the boys would chase them trying to get it?

sounds like fun :evilgrin:

[complain jane]

2. Yes!

Yes I had the big four wheel skates. I had a pair of Nike sneaker skates, blue and yellow, and it was when Born To Be Alive was out. I was in junior high.

:bounce:

Thanks for that little memory, I hadn't visited that in years.

[Cadence]

9. I had blue and yellow sneaker skates too

but mine weren't nike. I was jealous because my little sister had the "real skates" not sneaker skates...AND she had a pom pom on the toe.

[Bouncy Ball]

3. I remember couple skates

We couple skated to Journey's "Open Arms."

Lying beside you,
here in the dark.
Feeling your heartbeat with mine.....

Those were really raunchy lyrics to me back in the day!

And I kissed Paul with the buck teeth behind the lockers. A friend saw us and she TOLD my mom!

[Cadence]

5. LOL! You go!

That's funny you remember the buck teeth. Ahhh Journey...those lyrics did seem like a big deal back then.

[truthseeker1]

4. AND HOW!

Every weekend - plus I skated competitively so I was there all week long too, from 3:30-6:30 every weeknight.

I'm still on all 4's and I'm down at the beach boardwalk every weekend still :) LOVE it, couldn't live without it. And guess what's on my MP3 player? All those same disco songs.

By the way, it was called "shoot the duck".....

[Cadence]

8. Oh yeah! Shoot the duck...

I remember I tried finding it online a couple of years ago and discovered that. I can never remember so I call it disco duck...

Remember this song

I'm alright
don't nobody worry 'bout me
why you got to give me fight?
why don't ya just let me be

I remember I used to race out to the floor when that song came on. I have no idea why.

Oh and if I was still skating, I'd be using the four wheelers too. I can't do inline.

[truthseeker1]

10. That's the Caddyshack song....

circa 82 or 83??

Most of my skating days were in 76-79, but I had a bout of it again in 83 when I was in a new town and bored....I can remember they always used to play Time For Me To Fly by REO Speedwagon at the end of the night. That was the best. And I used to always get my speed skate on when the DJ played You Got Another Thing Comin' by Judas Priest. Man, those were the days :)

[truthseeker1]

6. Anyone remember the song Get Off by Foxy?

I spent the last few weeks going through all my old 45s and looking them up online and downloading all that I could find. Foxy's "Get Off" (around 1978)was one I couldn't find. I made my brother (who's 2 years older than me) a 4-CD anthology of our record collection from the 70s. He makes fun of disco music and acts like he never had anything to do with it, so I enjoyed packaging up the CDs along with all the 45s THAT HE HAD INITIALED...LIKE "MACHO MAN" BY THE VILLAGE PEOPLE AND "COPACABANA" - :bounce: LOL! Just so his wife could see that he did in fact used to listen to this music. I wish I could have been there to see his reaction. (Don't ask me why he felt it important to initial which records were his.)

[NurseLefty]

11. Ooo (x 12) oooooooooooooooh...

I remember that song! And yep, I roller skated at Skate King on weekends from when I was about 9 until I was 13 or 14. Shoot the duck, speed skate, backwards skating - such a blast! Then there was the "snowball", where girls lined up on one side and boys on the other. You'd wait to get asked to skate w/ someone, skating side by side and hand in hand. Usually some song like "Stairway to Heaven", Kansas' "Dust in the Wind" or Heatwave's "Always and Forever" was playing.
My first make-out session w/ a boy was at Skate King, BTW.
Ah, the memories...
:hippie: :loveya:

[truthseeker1]

31. OMG! Skate King - that's where it all started for me!

That's where I first learned how to skate when I was 6, and started taking freestyle lessons as that rink! How funny.... I even forgot the name of the rink until your post, then I looked up your profile and sure enough, says you're in Seattle. I remember the snowball too - and ooh, the hoky poky, and how about the skating games and races they would do on Saturday afternoons?

[NurseLefty]

40. I grew up in Kirkland. Went to the Bellevue location, then Kingsgate

when it opened.
In the late-80's the Bellevue location was still open & I went there. It was stuck in the late 70's - they played all the same disco & rock!
I don't know what happened to that location. I think the Kingsgate Skate King turned into a bingo hall.
Races - I ALWAYS loved the speed skate!
Here's one for ya - remember the smell of the skates, esp. near the skate rental area?

[truthseeker1]

47. We lived in Redmond - I'm not sure which one we used to go to

but I think it might have been Kirkland (I was only 6-7 years old at the time so don't remember things like that). Seems like there was a hardware store on the corner either near it or on the way.

I broke my wrist (the first time) in that rink :)
The second time I was 20 and I was skating outdoors at a park in San Diego with my dog. That time I broke BOTH wrists!

[Cadence]

39. OMG. I would never have remembered the

snowball! That was a stressful time for me. I remember I used to try to gauge when it was coming so I could get off the rink in time to avoid it. I was afraid I wouldn't get picked. If I didn't make it off in time my friends would make me stay out there with them.

[qnr]

7. umm, they didn't have any that I knew of in bedford-stuyvesant

and the other "interesting" neighborhoods I grew up in, back in NYC.

[Phentex]

12. ahhhh yes...and those leather name bracelets were popular...

and I was so excited when I fell and the boy I had a crush on ran over my pinky. It made a deep reddish bruise and I stared at it and daydreamed about him all week...

I had those big pom poms on my skates too!

[WritersBlock]

13. Skating backwards

I could make it slowly around the rink, but not with the nonchalance of the really cool kids. No problem picking up my feet on the turns going forward, but I just wasn't co-ordinated enough to do it going backwards.

Had the big white skates that looked like ice skates - don't remember seeing Nike skates, so those must have come after my time (mid 70's).

Oh yes, and pom-poms on the skates.

Remember the last song of the night was always a couples skate, too.

Every Friday and Saturday night. Ah, the good old days.

[B Calm]

14. I was the best Watlz jumper at Pops Skating Rink!

Loved those couples only with lights dim and the spot light. It was the funky organ playing that made me ill..

[Forkboy]

15. Hang out? I DJ'ed in one!

Always got in trouble for playing too much "hard rock" like Molly Hatchet or Dio :D

[BigMcLargehuge]

20. Rainbow in the Dark is a GREAT skate song

so is The Last in Line... In fact, they might be the exact same song...

[Forkboy]

23. Well my bosses didn't think so

I used to love working the all night skates because they wouldn't be there.One night I played 21 Van Halen songs in a row :evilgrin:

[BigMcLargehuge]

26. LOL!!!!

The DJ at Hot Wheels was good, exept for a bizarre need to play "Eugene" over and over and over and over again. Not to mention an annoying fixation on the Grease soundtrack.

[Red State Rebel]

16. Late 60's - Friday night sock hop at the rink!

9:00 and the skates came off, a live band set up in one corner and we boogied like fools (middle school age). I remember doing the shimmy to Wipeout :). After that abuse my bra size should be about a 36 long.

Mixed fear and humiliation when they did the East Side/West Side skate where the girls went to one end and the guys went to the other and the guys would start skating around and pick a girl from the crowd at that end. You stood there waiting to see if anyone would pick you and hope it wasn't some ugly geek.

[underpants]

17. (cue Leif Garett music) REVERSE SKATE!-I got my first kiss at a rink

:loveya:

[Left Is Write]

34. Hee! I just said the same thing -

About the first kiss that is. :)

[BigMcLargehuge]

18. Indeed I did

every Friday night and Saturday afternoon of my early teen years (when I was wasn't working at the family restaurant) were spent among the strobes and disco of Hot Wheels on Nash Rd. in New Bedford. And before then at the Lincoln Park skating rink in North Dartmouth, which is where I learned to skate in clay and wooden wheels, until it burned down.

It was such a fun and important part of my social childhood that I am considering seeking financing to open a similar place here in Derry at the old Ames store on Crystal Avenue.

My favorite was couples skate, I could usually find a girl to hold hands with for the last five minutes or so of the night.

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

22. Lemme guess what the slow dance tunes were the hot couples tunes...

Foreigner - "I've been waiting for a Girl Like You"
Madonna - "Crazy for You"
Chicago - "Hard Habit To Break"
Any Lionel Richie


Am I right??

[BigMcLargehuge]

25. Think earlier than that

Journey - Faithfully (or something... I can't remember the song's name because it was such a weenie song)
REO Speedwagon - I can't fight this feeling anymore (another weenie song)
Tavares - A Penny for your thoughts (a nickel for a kiss, a dime if you tell me that you love me)

[Cyndee_Lou_Who]

27. I was close on the years... REO's song was released in '84, Journey in '83

That Journey albumn was the 1st albumn I owned. That and Michael Jackson Thriller. heee

Tavares, however, was 1982. I thought we were about the same age. Those were the days... i used to hang at "Wisconsin Skate U". I even dated one of the DJ's. I had kick ass speed skates with hot pink and black laces... checkerboarded. Good times.

[BigMcLargehuge]

28. I had sneaker skates that I made

from a set of used regular urethane wheels and trucks of a pair of store bought skates, Franklin I think, and a pair of black Converse All Stars.

[BigMcLargehuge]

29. you were indeed close

I skated from about 1975 (when I was 6) until about 1990 (when I was 21)

[Roon]

19. I remember doing the

Y M C A!!

[aWaKeNoW]

21. Wooo Hooo! Couple skate in the opposite direction! LOL

[Z_I_Peevey]

24. Oooooh, skating.

Yep. Couldn't skate backwards, but I was FAST. The local bad boy and I would fly around like bats.

And I watched with admiration as the older bad boy would do his big trick: holding a match between his teeth, then striking the match on the floor as he rounded a turn. Quite impressive. He was lanky.

It was a semi-outdoor rink, with wooden frames holding big plastic sheets (like a greenhouse). The frames would be lifted in summer and tacked down in winter. For heat, we huddled around a big potbellied wood-burning stove.

I remember hearing "Working in a Coal Mine, Goin' Down, Down, Down..." as I tooled around.

[seaglass]

30. My dad and I won a dance contest. I skated back in the 60s

when I was a little girl, wooden floor rink. The place was called the Hi-Hat and was famous for their baked beans.

I tried skating later in life on those poly floors and it was like wearing roller skates on an ice rink. I didn't like it.

[redqueen]

32. Yes

I associate certain songs with the rink... Off the Wall, anything by Air Supply (only place I was forced to listen)...

I remember the boys only/girls only/couples only skates/speedskates, the races, games (e.g. limbo), the people who could dance on skates who got the whole rink to themsleves for a song or two a night, a guy named Conn (sigh)...

[truthseeker1]

43. The limbo! I forgot about that!

That was always great fun too!

[Left Is Write]

33. Yes. I was a teen at the height of roller rink popularity.

The moonlight skate, the snowball skate, boys who impressed girls by skating backward...

Yes, I carried a comb in my back pocket. Remember the cute little sayings on the comb handles?

Boys all had feathered hair. Girls wore shimmery eyeshadow and tight jeans.

My first kiss was at the roller rink.

Our rink used to do something they called the "Bump and Boogie" - there was circle painted in the middle of the rink, and when there was a Bump and Boogie, you could take your skates off and dance in the middle of the rink. There'd be a bunch of kids dancing there and a bunch more skating around them.

Do you remember all-night skates? We had those once every few months.

[NurseLefty]

42. Don't forget the big Bonne Bell lip gloss on a rope necklace...

My fave flavor was strawberry. That & the Goody big handle comb, star jeans, cowl neck sweaters and curling iron-feathered hair - the fashion of the day!

[Left Is Write]

52. I loved Bonne Bell!

I almost wish they still made those huge ones. The only flavor I didn't like was watermelon.

[skygazer]

35. Back in the late 60's, early 70's

The real cool people had their birthday parties at the Rollerdrome. When we got to about the age of 13, we'd all go on Friday nights. The owners of the place had been competetive roller skaters back in their day and they had pictures all around the place of them in costume skating. What a hoot! Fun memories....

[frictionlessO]

36. Skate Town USA and Xanadu were my theme movies!

I was a bad ass skater!!

and like so many got my first real kiss at a rink while The Go-Gos Our Lips Are Sealed was playing... man oh man what memeories you have brought on!!

[Cadence]

38. Ahh yes Xanadu. I had the hair ribbons

like hers. I didn't know what the movie was about (still don't) but the skating and hair ribbons were really cool!

[frictionlessO]

48. it was all about the muses and Olivia Newton John...

and skateing lots of skateing!! oh and ELO!! good stuff!

[China_cat]

37. I was considered an old-timer by the age of 14

because my mother had me on skates before I could walk. She had been part of a skating team that included the rink's owner's daughter and we were privileged characters. (Including being allowed to skate when the rink was closed to the public)

[kittycat1164]

41. damn yeah, I was a skater....

I lived at the rink after school. Skate America was only a block from my house and I could "cross-over" and go backwards. I took my kids skating recently and almost broke my neck. And I thought it would be like riding a bike. I watch them skate now, I don't have the guts to make an ass out of myself out there anymore.

[Cadence]

54. Cross over..

yeah that's the thing where you pick your foot up to go around a turn! Forget about skating backwards...I couldn't do it. I bet you could do that thing where you hold someone else's hands and go around in a circle really fast too.

[Blue_Tires]

44. i remember all of it (early 80s)

at the Haygood Rink in Virginia Beach (VA)...I remember fighting HUGE crowds on weekends to get in, even though I'd spend more time playing video games like Centipede or Time Pilot than real skating...I remember the 'popcorn' song (which is probably still played in a lot of places)...I remember being a terrible skater constantly holding on to the rails and doing that one-foot-push-thing (done for the safety of others, since at its most crowded, one clumsy skater could easily take out 10-15 people)...I remember the Pro Shop, which always had the lights out and NEVER seemed to have anyone manning it. The Pro Shop had wacky neon laces, faster wheels and trucks for speed, pads, etc, and had all these faded leftover endorsement posters still up from the 70s...I remember 'couples only,'(always a lonely time for me, but the video games kept me company), crack the whip, 4 corners, limbo game, exhibitions from professional skaters (there were these marked figure skating lines on the rink), and the list goes on...

The rink is still standing, and I think about it from time to time when I visit my parents...even though I haven't been there for more than 9 years, every time i'm home i swear i'll go skating again, (but sadly, can't pull the trigger)

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

55. Blue_Tires, I grew up in Newport News. We used to go to

Peninsula Family Skating Center on Main Street and before the fire took it out,Plaza Roller Rink off Warwick Boulevard.

Also skated in the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

Oh yeah! "Couples Only, Couples Only." I never got asked to skate by any guys during couples only; I was such a loser!


Lots of Bee Gees songs ("Tragedy," "Too Much Heaven") and Andy Gibb's "Shadow Dancing"

"Thriller" by Michael Jackson (those freaking jackets and those stupid gloves w/ the glitter!)

Lots of "Prince" and "Morris Day and the Time"


I was always bummed, though, when the skating ended. We had such fun!

[maveric]

45. Yes. Canobie Lake Park in Salem NH.

During the early 70's us high school stoner punks would get high and and skate around the rink trying to pick up chicks.
The rink even piped in WBCN, Boston. A cutting edge FM rock station at that time.
Oh what great memories.

[ProfessorGAC]

46. Mostly Ice Skating

Used to go 4 or 5 days a week to ice skate in the cold months. There was no roller rink was i was a kid, but there was one by the time i was in late highschool. Went a few times, but the crowd wasn't what you described. I'd say over 2/3rds were 13 and under girls. Not a place for a high school boy to hang out. I'd have felt a little creepy.
The Professor

[KurtNYC]

49. The "Skate Ranch" in Anaheim right off the 5 freeway

2 girls who lived next door to me loved to go. But then we had to take their little brother as well.

[bleedingheart]

50. no balance...

[sugar magnolia]

51. I remember when my mom FINALLY let me go to my first all-night skate.

What a time.

[B Calm]

53. New Years Eve all night skating parties were a hoot.

Loved to pop baloons with with my precision roller skates..

[SarahB]

56. Yes, the only sport I can do well.

ROLLERSKATE!!!!

I'm still good too. :headbang: