If you have something to contribute, Click Here to drop me a line

Names in this color have email addresses attached, just click.

You could always find me on the dance floor. (Occasionally horizontally! ) Not by the juke box or making out in the back area on the benches, but on the floor (especially the center for backwards skating) helping someone and ultimately helping myself become more proficient at the same time.

I now have two beautiful children 15 & 10 and a wife of 16 years. They all love to skate and watch the "old man" show off his stuff. It's like riding a bike; you never forget!

I hope to hear from someone that I taught or one of my many acquaintances during that time period.

Kathy Christensen (a rink patron and coat check girl along with her mother Mae) married Randy Landis (and is still married after 26 years). They have a beautiful daughter named Julie, 24, who they are extremely proud of with all her accomplishments throughout the years. I have known Randy since 5th grade & Kathy since 7th grade. They now live in upper Wisconsin.

You actually brought a tear to my eyes reading the beautiful tribute to our "home away from home". I am going to contact some people that MIGHT have some pictures. I enjoy hearing from others around the world.
Dennis "The Man in Black"

Dennis was a Floor guard at the Hub during the 1970's

Dan Michalski, July 16 2003

Hi, I too spent many fond years at The Hub, in my teens in the 1950s, and during my second childhood in the 1970s, right through the name change to Axle and finally its closing in the 1980s. A fellow named Freddie played the organ in the 1970s and a younger fellow named Bill managed the place until its closing. (I'm blocking last names at the moment.) (Freddie Arnish and Bill Kohn)

Do you recall Wally and Lorraine ("Lorr") Johnson, two weekly regulars during the 1960s and 1970s? They were in their 40's then, always well-dressed. Lorr worked behind the main food counter, then scooted out with Wally to dance their favorite numbers, like the waltz and the fourteen-step. I mention them because Wally took many 8mm movies inside the Hub during those decades, and screened them for us, his friends, at his condo home in River Grove, Illinois, near Belmont and Thatcher.

Many of us made several efforts to stay in touch via snail mail from the date of the rink's closing until the early 1990s, but family changes, aging, and moving made it tough.

Bob Haggeman, the carpenter (like his father), married a Hub skater named Mona (Romona), who was a State of Illinois auditor. I'd see them from time to time while shopping in the northwest suburbs near Palatine. I'm sorry I can't be more specific on names and addresses, but the memories remain fond. The skating itself was simply an added treat to the camaraderie, the long-lasting and endearing friendships, the get-togethers which followed, the dating, and the many marriages that inevitably came about.
And I can still smell the cookies baking from Maurice Lenell's next door.

Thanks for the memories. Dan Michalski

and more from Dan........July 18 2003

Hi Frank, Your reply gave my spirits a lift. Is there some easy way you can relay my name and email address to anyone caught up in Hub memories? My full name is Daniel Michalski, and was known as Dan or Danny by the gang. Bill Kohn used to call me "professor", since I taught at the college level in those days (and still do!). I am a writer in my other life.

I'm attaching my recent photo which should (literally) scare up a lot thoughts about me, good or indifferent. I especially miss Bill Kohn, one of the most gracious men I've ever met. During the great blizzard of 1979, he and I kept a safety vigil, sitting alone together throughout the night in the lonely rink, eating cold hamburgers and watching in awe as the weight of two feet of snow slowly buckled the roof--but never succeeded in bringing it down. (I wonder what we thought we'd do if the place did collapse--ice skate through the ruins? If we survived, that is.)

Sweet, sweet memories, and some goofy ones too.

Well, here I am, attached and looking at you. Cheers to Dick and Midge Folfas; Wally and Lorr Johnson; Warren and Carol Scholl; Joe and Pat Pedersen; Claudia Dramisino-Hennessy; Peggy (Cress) and Tom Morrisroe; big Timmy Olsen; Bob and Kathy Swanson; Terry the teacher from Immaculate Conception High School; Pat Rage--and so many other dear Hub/Axle friends I cannot just now recall.

Drop me a note, anyone, and we can shout, "Hey, remember that evening when ....!"
Gotta go before I cry.

Drop that note to Dan Michalski

Roger Ward
My father-in-law (Ed Plants) says he worked at the Hub from the mid 50's to the early 70's. Please add his name to your list. He says he worked in the skate room, as a floor guard, and in maintenance. I hope you remember him.
P.S. I've skated there a couple of times. That organ was huge. I was a competion skater at the North Av. roller rink

My father-in-law (Ed Plants) mentioned he was known as crazy legs. Maybe this will help you remember him better. When he used to skate at North Ave. he did have a unique skating style. Did you ever skate at the North Ave roller rink? It was in Maywood Pk. across the street from the Maywood Pk. race track. I worked there in the skate room and also as a floor gaurd.

Thank you for your time, Roger Ward

Remember that the Reunion is the first Saturday of every October at The Orbit!