I was doing some cleaning this morning and ran across my Axle memory. I was won of the winners when I was younger of a skating party for 10 people, I had gotten it for being one of the top collectors for the American Cancer Society Skate-A-Thon, something I did for years. I never cashed it in, my friends and I were going to be at the rink with or without a certificate.

I framed it and still have the original certificate. Skating was my escape, a place where me and my friends could get together, have fun and still be safe. I had to look up the Hub on the internet, I had to see if anyone else had such fond memories that they created a website. I spent all my teen years roller skating. When I was 15 I got my very own skates as an Easter present, those I unfortunately no longer have, I miss them. I even got the purple and white pom poms to put on the toes (an absolute requirement back then). By the time I started going on a regular basis it had become the Axle. My high school had a thing every year that was called mini course week and we got to choose something fun to learn for a week. My first year I chose roller skating, the lessons were at the Axle and I was hooked. I started going skating every weekend and then started to go during the week.

I tried to find out which high schools had their skating parties so that I could also go skating on Monday nights (when the rink was often rented out for private use). The music from the pipe organ was fantastic and I'll admit I can't listen to 'the baby elephant song' without thinking of my skating days, that song was fun to roller skate to. My husband is a dutchman who grew up roller skating also but not in a rink like I'm used to, that's unheard of in Netherland, he skated on the street but he's still a skater and also remembers his skating years with fond memories. Once while skating someone had fallen in front of me and since I was in the middle of a crowd I had no choice but to use the stopper, I didn't slam my foot down since I didn't want to fall over the person already down, instead I brushed it against the floor, instead of falling or stopping I started to spin. My friends were all standing there saying 'when did you learn to do that'. Other skaters passed by me saying 'wow look at her' and all I could do was laugh and think 'doesn't anyone realize I'm about to wipe out and break a leg'. I finally did fall and the friction from spinning and sliding across the wood floor literally melted a hole in the kneecap of my pants, it was funny. I wasn't hurt, bruised, damaged ego but not hurt and after that I took more classes to learn how to do the spin the right way because I liked the amazed reactions I got from everyone. I liked the spinning and I wanted to do it again without the bruises. Keep up the excellent site and thanks for the memories.

Cecelia