Remember Skate King in Tacoma?

What’s shaky, slow, tentative, and ridiculously fun?

Me, on roller skates!

Yes, I laced up some awful beat up brown roller skates with orange wheels yesterday at a skating rink in Everett to celebrate my niece’s fifth birthday. I figured that skating would be like riding a bike after not riding for a long time—a little shaky, but quick to remember what to do. And yeah, it’s only been 30 YEARS since I last skated; but I was confident. How hard could it be?

Oh. My. God. It was hard. I was pretty awful but I stayed upright. No falls! I went really slowly near the wall (just in case). The scary part wasn’t about toppling over, but getting smacked down by these little daredevil kids that could out skate me ten times over. At least I made it around the rink without any collisions.

And that rink! Disco ball glittering from the ceiling in the center of the rink, strobe lights, loud music, carpeted benches, and the stench of cheap pizza, stale popcorn, spilled pop, and sweat. It brought me back to my old skating days at Tacoma’s Skate King in James Center back.

I brought my own bright white, orange wheeled skates to Skate King, THE coveted childhood gift from Santa. I remember skating backwards, doing the speed skate, and the infamous slow skate with the lights dimmed, a cheesy love song (think Journey) and skating hand and hand with a boy. We did the “duck” move (inspired by the song “Disco Duck”) and the Hokey Pokey on skates. I remember my wheels getting tangled up in my overly long wide legged jeans. Ah, the memories.

Anyone else wanna share?

Kim, The Skate Queen