“I have recently taken up two sports: roller skating and ankle spraining in that order. I am getting quite good at both.”
Last night it poured. Poor Henry stuck his nose out the door then backed into the kitchen. I wish I had his bladder. He lasted until 10 this morning. The sky is covered in clouds but the clouds are light, almost white. Rain is predicted for today but not yet. It will be in the high 40’s. I have no errands. I will stay home in my cozies. I have books and plenty of food though none of it is sweet. That’s a drawback.
Yesterday I bought another set of lights for the spawns to chew. It is needed on the back stairs because it is so dark at night Henry won’t go out unless I turn on the back light. Such a brave boy! This morning he actually came in the dog door because he thought Jack was getting a treat.
When I was a kid, our house wasn’t very big. It was one side of a duplex which was a mirror image of our side. The kitchen was small. There were three bedrooms upstairs. The cellar was huge. One side of it had a sink where the washing machine, a wringer, was connected. The other side had the oil tank but still had plenty of room. I used to ride my bike around the cellar. It did get tricky crossing the bottom the stairs but that didn’t matter. I rode it anyway. The road where I lived ended at a cut de sac. We used to roller skate on the sidewalk. I remember the skate wheels made noise on what we always called the hot top. The faster I went, the louder the noise.
I remember the Bal-A-Roue skating rink in Medford. My friends and I used to go on a Friday or a Saturday night. The roller skates had high sides and a lot of laces. The girl rented white skates, the boys black. The rink was long and was wooden. It was more of an oblong than a circle. Music played while we skated. I was better on ice skates. The wheels of the roller skates seem to take off on their own. One way to stop was to hope to grab the sides, but mostly I fell which stopped all forward progression. I’d grab the side to pull myself off the floor or a friend would skate by and give me a hand. By the end of the evening, my pants were filthy from contact with the floor. I remember watching in awe skaters who could do spins usually in the middle of the floor as most of us kept to the side, the safer place. I also remember couples who danced together as they skated, their feet in perfect rhythm. I never aspired to spin or dance. I spent all my energy and concentration trying to stay off the floor. I wasn’t very successful.
Explore posts in the same categories: Musings
April 16, 2021 at 1:34 pm
Nasty cold morning but the rest of the day has been really nice, despite the strong wind that never seems to stop blowing. The weekend will be much the same, feels odd that we actually will have nice and warm weather an entire weekend 🙂 🙂
Albin must have a bladder in the size of half his body! I don’t think he pees in the dog yard as any normal dog would, instead he waits until I come home and it takes quite some time until he has finished his first round 🙂 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
April 16, 2021 at 2:46 pm
Christer,
Ugly day here today with no hope for a nice afternoon or evening. I am glad I’m staying home. Tomorrow it will rain again.
Henry too takes a long time. I am amazed at how long he can keep his leg in the air. He pees on the same spot of the same tree every time he goes out. It is a good thing the tree trunk is thick.
Enjoy your evening!
April 16, 2021 at 2:32 pm
Don’t know if you’ve seen this before (I don’t think I’ve shared it), but even if you have/I have, it’s still fun to watch from time to time. It’s what many consider the first “video” of the music video age. It just seemed appropriate for today.
April 16, 2021 at 3:09 pm
im6,
Nope,I hadn’t ever seen or even heard this song. The skaters, Lucy and Ramona, look all set for a Donna Summer disco song. The video is fun to watch. The song is different than I expected, a good different.
I haven’t given Michael Nesmith a thought in ages. I followed him for a while after The Monkees but that was years ago. I’ll have to do a bit more hunting.
April 16, 2021 at 2:36 pm
And here’s a “pander” to Hedley on what would have been Miss Dusty’s 82nd birthday. I chose this one only because I couldn’t find any songs featuring roller skates. So, stretch though this may be, it’s just gonna have to do. Happy, happy, Dusty!
April 16, 2021 at 3:10 pm
im6,
Nothing wrong with a bit of pandering.
Hunting for songs for todays posting was really difficult. Roller skating is not a popular song topic. Like you, I stretched it a bit,and it works just fine.
I do love Dusty!
April 16, 2021 at 3:16 pm
Hi Kat,
It’s been a cool cloudy day here with some good rain last night and this morning. The temperature is right now at the high of around 61°. Hopefully, it will clear up by tomorrow.
I’m amazed how much space the average single family home has here in the United States. According to Google the average is 2,531 square feet. That’s up from an average in 1970 of 1,660 square feet. My current abode is about 3,000 square feet. Your memory is correct we all lived in smaller spaces it’s not just that we were little and any space around us seemed large. :-‘)
When I was a kid we always skated with those skates that strapped and clipped onto our shoes. In summer camp we made lanyards woven out of thin plastic ribbons with an adjustable slide. It’s only purpose was to hang your precious skate key around your neck. My sister and I spent hours going around the concrete slab in the backyard that was supposed to be the patio. When my father had it poured he specified a smooth surface so that we could skate around without bumps. Regardless of either wheels or blades on ice I couldn’t skate backwards nor do any tricks. Basically, I’m a klutz when it comes to athletics. If I tried to skate today I would certainly end up with bruises and a broken bone somewhere on my body. 🙁
April 16, 2021 at 5:17 pm
HI Bob,
The rain started again lightly, but it is so cold because of the damp. Henry’s dog door was blowing freezing air so I had to shut the door. It will rain again tomorrow.
I never thought our house was small. When we moved to the cape, we moved into a larger house. My parents’ next move was when I was in the Peace Corps, and it was to a larger house off-cape. That was their last house.
I used the same skated when I was a kid. Mine didn’t clip to my shoes. I had to use the key to tighten the skates to my shoes. I used a shoelace to hold my key around my neck. It was only in places like the roller rink where they had shoe skates. I could only go backwards on ice skates. I was fairly athletic when I was a kid but not on skates.
I’d definitely break a bone if I skated now.
April 16, 2021 at 6:24 pm
I guess the skates were climped to the shoes with the skate key to tighten the clamps. When memory gets fuzzy I turn to friend Google to look it up. The part about the strap was due to fuzzy memories. 🙂
April 16, 2021 at 6:49 pm
The strap is right. Mine had leather straps. Those never loosened but the clamps did.