United Skates

[CherryMalotte]

Anybody besides me watch this?  As sad as parts of it were, it has some joyful moments as well.  I loved roller skating, haven't been for years, but this made me want to start up again if there were only a decent place near me.  We have one, but it's got not so great hours and it's all for kids, no adult night, that's for sure.  I was never as good as most of these skaters but boy it was fun.

[chenoa333]

11 minutes ago, CherryMalotte said:

Anybody besides me watch this?  As sad as parts of it were, it has some joyful moments as well.  I loved roller skating, haven't been for years, but this made me want to start up again if there were only a decent place near me.  We have one, but it's got not so great hours and it's all for kids, no adult night, that's for sure.  I was never as good as most of these skaters but boy it was fun.

Thanks for the info. I'm definitely going to watch it!

[Guest]

On 2/25/2019 at 10:27 PM, CherryMalotte said:

Anybody besides me watch this?  As sad as parts of it were, it has some joyful moments as well.  I loved roller skating, haven't been for years, but this made me want to start up again if there were only a decent place near me. 

Same! I watched it last night and was amped to go find a nearby skating rink—but it's 2019 and there are no such things near me. 

I had no idea what roller skating meant to the African American community. Like, none. And it was depressing and disheartening as hell to learn that greed is closing these rinks down and discrimination prevents people from enjoying the open ones. I mean, really? You can't have "small wheels?" Who the hell cares what size wheels are on the skates? Oh, right. It's not really about the wheels at all, is it? I wanted to smack those super-sized women who told the family they had to leave the rink and excused themselves away because they were "just doing their jobs." Jesus. 

The skaters were amazing and joyous. I hope they can continue to skate wherever they can!

[funky-rat]

I started skating in the late 70's, when I was 4 or 5.  I was a skating junkie.  I miss it sometimes, but after an accident where I mangled my left leg, my balance is bad.  I tried skating a few years ago.  I was OK on carpet, but I couldn't get out on the floor without hanging on for dear life, and I was once a good skater.  Started out on roller, but added ice in high school (we don't have year round ice rinks here).  We still have a nice roller rink that has adult only nights.  They also added a 2nd area for little kids/inexperienced skaters so they're not a danger to the people on the main floor.  If I could lose a few more pounds, I might try again.

[Rlb8031]

On 2/25/2019 at 10:27 PM, CherryMalotte said:

Anybody besides me watch this?  As sad as parts of it were, it has some joyful moments as well.  I loved roller skating, haven't been for years, but this made me want to start up again if there were only a decent place near me.  We have one, but it's got not so great hours and it's all for kids, no adult night, that's for sure.  I was never as good as most of these skaters but boy it was fun.

I watched it and cried at my lost childhood. We had three rinks that we skated at as kids, 1) the hood rink where we we were only allowed to go for afternoon sessions because it was too rough for us kids to hang out at night; 2) the super-swanky rink which was where all the celebrities would go to skate. It was geared towards adults (white) and tolerated us kids (black) so long as we did not skate in more than groups of two or show up the house skaters with our tricks; and 3) the other hood rink which was over an hour away, but which our parents let us go to because it was on the edge of a pretty wealthy community in the Bronx so the cops kept everyone under control and there were no parking lot fights or trouble in the rink. Currently the go-to rink near me is an outdoor rink, so its really only available May-October. Some of the older skate rats still show up there along with a couple of other outdoor spaces in NYC (Union Square and Central Park), but its nothing like the dark circle with the banging beats of our childhood.