Roller Skating
March 16, 2005
by Linda . . . |
Dancer on
Wheels
a special 1993 article on Julia (in pdf format) |
Last night I played hooky from school and went to Milwaukee
to go roller skating with Julie. She located a rink about 25 miles outside
Milwaukee that had a Tuesday night Adult Skate - really great to skate and
not worry about having to jump over a wiped-out kid on the floor. We were
pretty psyched and really ready to rock out on skates.
We walk into the rink and it was like being in another world. A decent
size rink, with great wooden floors and EVERY single person in the place
was a senior senior citizen. We guessed the average age to be about 70.
There might have been a 60-year-old youngster there. ?
They were happy to see us - and happy to share the special occasion with
us . . . a St. Patrick's Day dance skate night pot luck. They were ALL
dressed in green - and, as fortune would have it - Julie and I were too!
The women wore skating outfits with tiny little skating skirts.
They all wore figure skates - Julie and I, our speed/racing skates.
There was one guy in his late 60's that won 13th and later 4th place in
National Couples Dance Skating competitions. He was like a strange
ballerina on wheels and glided around the rink all night - mostly by
himself - doing swan dives, revolutions, spins, and all sorts of moves
figure skaters do.
One guy - everybody was really proud of Tom - was 89. Tom was very dapper
in slacks, dress shirt, sweater and bow tie. He taught me how to position
my left arm and keep it rigid so we, as couple, would be sort of locked as
a unit while we skated together.
I also skated with a retired traveling milk inspector and a bunch of other
very interesting men. Practically every skate of the evening was a special
dance skate of some sort. There was one - I can't recall the name - where
it was couples only where one of the couple had to be a guy so Julie and I
sat down when that one was announced . . . except I got asked to skate ;-)
You'd skate around with your guy - not holding hands, but in a
side-by-side dance position which I was taught. About every three to five
minutes or so, a signal would be given for the man to skate up to the next
gal and skate with her . . . so I got to skate and visit with each man -
which was fun (and very interesting).
The food was great, and Julie and I enjoyed it even though we'd just had
dinner.
It will definitely go down as a highlight in our skating memories.
Julia kept saying, "I feel like I'm dreaming."
|
