Celebrating at the Roller Skating Rink

Mr. SP was a reluctant book report writing machine this year.  He loved reading.  He loved writing books reports much, much less.  Yet, he always met or exceeded the required quota of 8 reports a month.  During the months of May and June, his teacher invited those who had handed in enough book reports to join her at the roller skating rink in Superior.  We missed the party in May because there were about 8 million family conflicts with scheduling that night, but the party in June happened to take place the very next day after the piano recital, a day that I do not teach any lessons on, and a day in which the babysitter was still coming, so we decided it would be the perfect opportunity to leave Mr. Trouble on Feet and take off for the roller skating rink.

YaYa did not want to go, which was probably a good choice because she is easily overstimulated, and the roller skating rink was one wild and crazy place:  loud music, grungy, sticky furniture, disgusting concessions, crazy blinking lights, and lots of excited, wobbling kids of all ages.  It was exactly like you’d expect a roller skating rink to be, and it brought be quickly back to my childhood, even though we did not skate at a rink; we had roller skating on Friday nights in the gymnasium at school.  (I now fully appreciate why my dad was reluctant to leave his “Wheel of Fortune” program on TV to drive excited little me into town and tie up my skates.  Roller skates are even worse to tie than ice skates!)

It was The Banana, Mr. SP and me, and I had the worst time finding the place, even though I had the directions spot on.  I drove past the building at least three times before we figured out that it was the place.  When we finally got there we rented the roller skates.  I tied up Mr. SP’s skates and let him loose on the floor.  He wobbled away as fast as he could.  I tied up The Banana’s skates and warned her it was going to feel slippery when she left the carpet.  She was not prepared and immediately fell, which caused her to proceed very cautiously all the rest of the time, mostly hanging onto the wall.  She did not fall again.

Mr. SP, on the other hand, went wherever he decided to go at a fast and furious pace, and fell approximately once every two minutes.  I don’t mean he stumbled, either.  I mean he was constantly flying through the air and crashing down to the floor in all sorts of painful-looking postures.  He was so excited to be there, however, he just jumped back up and sped away again.     Even his teacher came over to me and remarked how he was going to be seriously bruised the next day.  It was pretty amazing.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone fall so much, and for him to be so cheerful about it as he frantically flopped around was nothing short of miraculous.

I was a little surprised roller skating was not a bit easier for the two of them, since they both do OK on ice skates.  At least with ice skates they are bundled up when they fall!

Needless to say, they both LOVED the experience and are anxiously awaiting a time when they can do it again.  I don’t think they will be able to convince YaYa to join them, though.  The place definitely made for some very interesting people watching on my part.