Nostalgia - Wheels for My Shoes

Back in the 1940's I have clear memories of sidewalk roller skating in the summertime. Of course it was ice skating in the winter. I saw on the news today that this is the National Rollerskating Month. OK, here's my story.  

The very rural neighborhood sidewalks from the end of my block to the beginning were concrete slabs with small spaces between each one. Some were cracked from weather upheavals as well. My dad was always killing off the grass that wanted to grow there. I remember sitting on the warm ones in the summertime poking at the anthills and watching the ants surface and scatter. Those were the days when kids amused themselves. The sidewalks were wonderful places to skate and chalk in hop scotch marks and play with the other neighborhood kids. We all had roller skates. Our mothers all had iodine and bandaids handy to patch up our scraped knees and elbows. Even though the skates were "primitive" in today's world, they were the latest in yesterday's. There were clamps that could be tightened or loosened at the sole edge of the toe of our shoes using our precious keys. The keys were strung with shoelaces or ropes and hung around our necks so we wouldn't lose them.

please note all images are from the internet

Leather straps were buckled around our ankles to hold the heels in place. I remember my dad put sheepskin pieces under mine to help diminish the rub of the buckles and friction of the straps. The length was adjustable by loosening the nut on the bottom and then being able to stretch out the entire skate to match the size of the shoe. When that was accomplished the nut was tightened. (I remember I had wing nuts, not plain ones so it was easier for me to adjust the skate length because they were shared with my brother.) I "think" (lost this part of memory) we oiled the bearings in the wheels with Singer's sewing machine oil. Anyway we had to keep the wheel bearings clean - maybe it was graphite powder.

As years went by, my block friends and I moved up to rink skating and parents would take turns delivering us to the nearby arena and then picking us up after closing time. That was in the early 1950's. The arena had a lady in the balcony actually playing a large organ for the music the entire time and she even took requests! We had "special" short skirts and underpants for spins and we had pom poms and "stops" on the toes of our rink skates. Girls had white skates. We carried them in a box with stickers pasted all over for decoration. 

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Sometimes it's good to look back. Sometimes it's not. This was a good time.