My niece, Emilee, is here for a few days from Wisconsin. Her daughter’s 8th birthday was last week, the same day as Randy’s birthday. She told me last night she’s having a roller skating party for her daughter next weekend.
My goodness, that brought back memories, of both the skating, and of a post I’d written about 9 years ago for my blog at the time, Thinking 2 Steps Ahead.
I feel like I’m a little in the doldrums these days. The sun has been setting awfully early in the evening. Daylight Savings Time started last Sunday so that will help some. It’s snowbird season in southwest Florida when most of the festivals, music events, major league baseball spring training, and things to do are scheduled. Those things, usually crowded, noisy and hectic aren’t relaxing for me. This time of year the beach isn’t the best place to be. I’m getting climatized as a Floridian and am cold when it’s 65 degrees. I haven’t had many interesting ideas for blog posts.
When Emilee reminded me of roller skating, I decided you, dear readers, would enjoy this post. It’s one of my favorites of all time. I’m happy to remind you of it as well, especially as I’m resurrecting Thinking 2 Steps Ahead.
Some of you will remember the post from the first time I wrote it. I hope you all enjoy the purely joyful memory it evokes for me as much as I do.
Original Title: Clean Underwear, Ibuprofen and the Joy of Good Clean Fun
I’m 61 years old. Growing up in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, some of my most vivid good memories of my teen years involved the Rollaire Roller Skating Rink. It was just a few blocks from my house, and as a preteen and teen, it was THE place to hang out, be with friends, listen to great music and just have lots of good, clean fun. It’s been YEARS since I’ve roller skated, but every memory I have of roller skating is a good one.
So when my church announced a couple of weeks ago that they’d rented a local roller rink for a private party, I longed to go.
Mind you, I didn’t just WANT to go, I LONGED to go. I YEARNED to recreate, if just for a couple of hours, that carefree time in my life. I wanted to feel the breeze blowing my hair back as I FLEW around that rink on wheels faster than I could ever think of moving by myself or in a motorized vehicle. Well, at least I wanted to see if it was still possible for me to do that.
Randy was shocked that I wanted to go to a roller skating party. In fact, he said he’d never imagine in a million years I’d want to do that. Most of my original roller skating years were pre-Randy, I guess. But he was game, too.
Seeing as how I’m older and wiser now, and I’ve learned to think 2 steps ahead, I did a quick run though before we left the house and headed for the skating party.
1. Long, heavy socks to wear inside the skates – check.
2. Looser jeans for better mobility – check.
3. Refill the ibuprofen container in my purse – check.
4. Clean underwear in case I ended up in the Emergency Room – check.
Did I mention that I’m 61? And Randy’s 63? I’m packing enough ibuprofen for both of us these days. And emergency rooms and roller rinks seem to naturally go together at our age.
Regardless….
We were, I’m sure, the oldest couple who actually put on skates. And it wasn’t bad at all. We were able to move around just fine.
Then we transitioned from the carpet to the skating floor.
Yikes, what the heck happened to our stability? How could a quarter inch thick layer of glue and fiber make such a big difference between moving normally and feeling like a piece of spaghetti walking a tightrope. I can’t remember ever feeling so spastic in my life.
But, we skated. Sort of. We each made it around the rink several times. Randy said skating was tempting fate. Every circuit around the track put him one revolution closer to doing a face-plant. His luck ran out the 6th time around. He said his iPhone broke his fall. Thankfully, he didn’t break his iPhone.
I didn’t fall. But I didn’t fly around the rink in the manner I remembered either.
No matter. We had fun. Fun like we haven’t had for years. We laughed because we actually got out there and did it. We laughed because we weren’t able to get out there and do it like we used to. We were grinning like a couple of teen-agers when were were done skating and went to Steak and Shake and ordered burgers, fries and malts. We even chuckled as we asked for water so we could wash down the ibuprofen we needed. (I did mention that we’re in our early 60s, didn’t I?)
What a great day!
We all need to pretend to be kids again occasionally. I think that’s why adult coloring books are really the in thing right now.
What did you enjoy doing at a much more carefree time in your life, haven’t done for a long time, that would bring you great joy and delight by trying it again?
Go do it! And tell us about it in the comments below.
P.S. This is the week I’m going to make the transition from the old hosting company to the new one. If, for some reason, you get a broken link next time you try 68andcounting.com, let me know with a private e-mail or message. I know those of you who are regular readers and will notice if the website is down have a good e-mail address and text number for me.
Leave a Reply