I’ve fallen head over wheels in love with roller skating.
This is how it happened: I was working on a story for the Register on The OC Roller Girls, and after attending a couple of practices and going to a few Roller Derby bouts, I started to get smitten with skating. Though not enough to be a roller derby girl, PLEASE …me? I have weak ankles and a well-developed fear of girls pushing me to the ground. But roller skating…remember roller skating?
I grew up in Huntington Beach and in the early ’80s I spent most of my time applying my roll-on lip gloss, feathering my hair, and skating to Earth, Wind & Fire at the Holiday Roller Rink in Fountain Valley. No girl was more dedicated to her roller skates than me. Every weekend I was there, the scent of Love’s Baby Soft permeating from my satin jacket and rainbow shirt. I had my own white skates with big yellow wheels AND I had the ’80s version of flair–pom-poms.
Yes, some of it was about the boys, but a lot of it was about the pom-poms.
Now, I’m a wife and mother of two kids–how can I work roller skating into my life? My friends will surely roll their eyes and toss the idea in to the growing heap of “things Suz got all excited about and quickly forgot.” (That heap has cost me a bundle.) But, when I mentioned it to them they wanted to join in, and when I wrote about it on my personal blog, I got a huge response from moms all around the country. THEY WANTED ROLLER SKATES! Geesh! Okay then.
I ordered my roller skates and my husband got me the pom-poms for our anniversary. Here they are…
My new roller skates.
Now, to find a place to skate. I ended up with a girlfriend of mine and our daughters at The Holiday Roller Rink in Orange one Saturday morning for a quick lesson and then open skate. After my first spin around the rink it felt like my skates and I had never parted–it was just like 1981 again. My girlfriend who hadn’t been on her skates in (ahem) a long time, too, was having the same “Peggy Sue Got Married” moment. As we heartlessly lapped our struggling seven-year-olds we sunk deeper and deeper into a nostalgic trance.
The whole rink experience is largely unchanged and really geeky. They still do the hokey pokey, play Redlight/Greenlight, and blast Queen’s “We will rock you” as everyone stomps their skates to the beat. Just to clarify, when I say “really geeky,” I mean “totally awesome.”
I admit, I did feel a little silly breaking out my skates in Newport this past weekend to skate while my son rode his bike down the bike path. I mean, I am “of a certain age” when cute can be translated, to some, as pathetic, or just plain dorky. I did contemplate walking instead. But then I thought more about it and as I laced-up, fastened my hot pink helmet and straightened my “Hello Kitty” t-shirt I said (to myself), “This really makes me happy. I’m really beside myself with flippin’ happiness right now.” And if being (fine, I’ll say it) 40 years old has taught me anything, it’s “Take any ‘happy’ you can get.”
Great, now I really sound like a biddy, but it’s true. I don’t care if roller skating comes across as a clear grasp at my fleeting youth, I’m going to do it anyway–with flair!
Here’s a video I made about my new passion: I Got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates.
More embarrassing & immature behavior from me:
- A little too happy about a happy meal toy.
- 10 things mommy wishes she could stop doing.
- Honey, I’m going to have to write you up for tonight’s dinner.
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Oh my gosh, we were probably there on Skate Night and skated backwards right past each other, lol. Do you remember a skating rink that looked like a big red barn, right where the Discovery center is now? I can’t remember what it was called but it was a major privilege to go there. As for being 40 and skating, I say put on Dire Straits’ Roller Girl on your walkman and take it away!
I think you and your pom poms are bitchin’. Keep following your passions, because that’s what life is all about.
.
Skate on!
It was the Skate Ranch, wasn’t it Marcy? You just blew my mind, I can picture it clear as day, driving southbound on the 5 toward my Abuelita’s house!
I do recall working extra hard to earn my double wrap belt to wear to skate night. I know I wore it with a rainbow top and my Gloria Vanderbuilt jeans. I never owned my own skates (sigh) but I loved going to the skate place in Fountain Valley. My friends and I would get our Slurpee’s and Licorice ropes from the snack bar and then wait to watch the boy’s fast skate… oh those were the days. Is it still red inside with the big round benches?
I think new roller skates will make me happy too! I usually embarass my kids by lacing up when we go to the rink. Imagine their horror when I roll out with pom poms!!!
Yeah but did you buy the extra long rope licorice in red and put it thru the belt loops of your Ditto Jeans and take bites while you skated around at Skateway? And did you COMPETE in skating competitions and really truly believe roller skating was just about to make it into the olumpics? Did you practice your ‘axel’ jump and land so many times ON YOOUR WHEEL that you had giant wheel shaped bruises on your butt all year?
Well. Okay then. I may or may not have done all of the above. I am not admitting to anything.
I wanna go to. I am jealous. I am happy for you……
I am realizing that’s what i should have done with my kids Sunday instead of sitting around Sunday watching TV and complaining it was too smokey to go outside! My kids love to roller skate though I am scared now to get on a pair of skates, it’s been too many years. I got my first kiss many years ago behind a roller rink.
Suzanne - My girls and I would love to skate with you on a Saturday morning. I’m an excellent roller blader (in a Rain Man kind of way), but I haven’t been roller skating in too many years. I’m going to start practicing skating backward through the kitchen in my socks right now.
My roller skating love story at Skate Ranch Santa ana.
If you look in the OC register my wife and I was in the paper with the letters of the demolished roof rink neon signage.I beleive the year was 1999
I saw Ramona for the first time clear across the rink She seemed to have a glow about her,so I ask her to skate. Guess what happened…… SHE SKATED BETTER THAN ME (Dance skating). After two hours of getting along so good I asked her cavalierly “SO WHEN ARE WE GETTING MARRIED ” and this is why I married her by the response she said “I can’t say NO and I can’t say YES ,we should make our plans and let God decide.Then she looked me in my eyes
with conviction “LOVE MUST BE PROVEN!!! ARE YOU UP FOR THE CHALLEDGE?” I said “I AM A MAN I AM ALWAYS UP” pausing I said “AWAKE when I am with you”
6 months later love was proven. We were married 28 years until she went to heaven.I buried her with her skates. I still skate even today at 61 years old .I skate at Holiday Fountain valley adult night on Sunday and Skate depot on Friday nights in Cerritos. I love skating people are friendly and respectful.those who really have a passion for flying with leaving the ground except when doing freestyle jumps now having a brief encounter with reaching for the stars I never knew a jump or spin I didn’t like that because a good floor is not a boar. . thk for sharing Paul