Roller Skate 88
Nineteen eighty-eight was a big year for little eleven-year-old me: I had my first girlfriend, got my first kiss, grew out the mullet that would haunt my shoulders throughout junior high school, and I discovered my local college radio station. That last part, though, didn't occur until a little later on in the year, and when it did happen, my musical tastes were changed forever. Prior to that, what I listened to generally was a very mainstream amalgam of pop, rock, and pop rock from the seventies and eighties. Plus R.E.M. I guess they would have been my one little scrap of hipster cred at the time—had I known what "hipster cred" even was at that age.
Memories of the music I liked at this weird, transitional time of my life—when I was just starting to own my own tapes and records—are inextricably linked to my memories of this one particular roller skating rink that was a couple towns over from where I grew up. It all started at my friend's birthday party, which he had at this establishment, and which, if I remember correctly, was quite the little fifth grade throwdown—horrible rectangular pizza slices and all. I was having a nice time skating around, hanging out with my friends and whatnot, but my day got infinitely better when I ran into (figuratively, not literally) this really cute redheaded girl from my school. She was in sixth grade and thus a seemingly unattainable older woman to me, and of course she wasn't there for my friend's party, but nevertheless she seemed to want to talk to me and even wanted to—gasp—skate with me. Butterflies spawned exponentially in my stomach. Traitorous bastard that I was, I naturally drifted away from my friend's party and focused my attention completely on this girl who, for the sake of protecting the innocent, I'll call Lilly.
That one day was all it took, I asked her to "go out with me" and then we were an official junior high school item. From then on I went roller skating a hell of a lot. There were a handful of times we went over to each other's houses or went to the movies, but probably 90% of the time we were together it was at the roller skating rink. Her one contribution to my music taste was introducing me to Whitesnake—their track "Here I Go Again" was basically our song—but most of the music I loved at the time came directly from the extremely nerdy DJ that the roller rink employed. It was a mixed bag of pop flotsam that I probably would have hated if I were a little older, but at that undiscriminating age I loved it. The
Dirty Dancing soundtrack was huge at the time so that always figures into my memories of those days, as does the sugar sweet pop squirted out by the likes of Tiffany and Belinda Carlisle and the mature-enough-to-be-slightly-over-my-head sex appeal of George Michael and Salt-n-Pepa. And, of course, we are talking about the late eighties here so I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some other other cock rockers like Def Leppard and Bon Jovi—I clearly remember the scream-along contests that the roller rink used to have for "Livin' on a Prayer". There was even one song that DJ played that I might possibly have actually liked even if I were older: "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S.
My first kiss was also at that roller rink, in a corner, on one of those carpet-covered benches that they have in those places, my friend Pat sitting right next to us. Maybe it's poetic memory but I swear that the song that was playing as we skated away after that kiss was "She's Like the Wind" by Patrick Swayze. It certainly felt that way. She was, indeed, like the wind through my tree. Whatever the f
uck that means. My relationship with Lilly lasted for quite a few months, which is basically the equivalent of decades at that age, and when it ended, for reasons I no longer remember, that was pretty much the end of my visits to the roller skating rink. I soon discovered college radio, befriended kids who introduced me to thrash and death metal, and the next phase of my musical growth was well underway.
For your amusement, I present my top five roller skating tracks...