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Remember Roller skating rinks and arcades?

VERAULT

VERAULT

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2012
Messages
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Location
Connecticut, USA
I was watching some documentary about arcade games and it got me thinking. When I was young rollerskating rinks were the place to be. They usually had an arcade area; and kids in the know would have a birthday party there. They played great music and it was a great place to pickup girls.

Whatever happened to this? Why did it go away? And dont say they still exist.. When is the last time someone built a new one of these?: roller rink, drive-in, bowling alley? Kids today are just so antisocial about everything. I don't even see venues like this existing in any way today.


Ours was called "Roller Palace" It was next to a drive-in (whole other topic right there) that went out of business in the late 70's. The whole area is a strip mall now... But the memories were good.


Do you guys have memories of these types of places?
 
I went to a roller rink once, somewhere in my teens. Let's say 1982. I was terrified of getting out in the rink, everyone was olDer and they were whipping around fast. I finally got out, learned how to keep up real fast (had to be easy), and I kept skating until at least 2am when they threw us out. I seem to recall it being exhilirating. I guess especially when I finally realized I could keep up. Didn't want to stop.
 
You mean your city doesn't have a Roller Derby team? Heck, the woman who cuts my hair is in roller derby.

How about drive-in theaters? I made extra money for a couple of years running the projectors at a couple of those. Big carbon-arc lamps. Fun times and all the Coke you could drink, provided you brought your own container.
 
2icebitn said:
I went to a roller rink once, somewhere in my teens. Let's say 1982. I was terrified of getting out in the rink, everyone was olDer and they were whipping around fast. I finally got out, learned how to keep up real fast (had to be easy), and I kept skating until at least 2am when they threw us out. I seem to recall it being exhilirating. I guess especially when I finally realized I could keep up. Didn't want to stop.
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That was about when I went. Only time ever. I must have been in my early 30s and, like you, was scared to get out there but did anyway. I wasn't very good at it. But yeah, nowadays, if you can't do it with your thumbs while looking at a little screen, it's not gonna happen.
 
Chuck(G) said:
You mean your city doesn't have a Roller Derby team? Heck, the woman who cuts my hair is in roller derby.

How about drive-in theaters? I made extra money for a couple of years running the projectors at a couple of those. Big carbon-arc lamps. Fun times and all the Coke you could drink, provided you brought your own container.
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Im sure there is one (roller derby team) in the nearest City, (if it has a rink that is.. not sure) but I dont know of one nearby (bought a house in a remote woodsy area for a reason). A girl I knew when I was in the NAVY got into Rollerderby I remember her telling me all about it.

I still love drive ins, but I think there is only one continually running drive in, left In CT. Maybe one or 2 that are open ocassionally.. they are almost gone im afraid.
 
Ole Juul said:
That was about when I went. Only time ever. I must have been in my early 30s and, like you, was scared to get out there but did anyway. I wasn't very good at it. But yeah, nowadays, if you can't do it with your thumbs while looking at a little screen, it's not gonna happen.
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I shattered my right wrist roller skating when I was 12 (some little girl who didnt know how to skate just "ran" into the rink going the wrong way.. headed right into me.. Yeah put me off skating for a bit,, was never as good after that too, but it didnt stop me.

9 months in a cast.. ahh that sucked.
 
There's an arcade in my area... and I mean a real arcade with video games. And I think a skating rink as well... but why would I do that when I can go play video games? lol
 
I never went roller skating, just not my thing.

The original arcades were for pinball machines in the 70's. I actually liked playing pinball at local bars when I turned 18 (before they made the drinking age 21).

Anyway the first video games were just dumped in stores. My first look at a video game machine was space invaders just inside the door of a local grocery store my mom dragged me to when I was a kid of around 10 (boy did they eat up quarters). They would be by the bubble gum machines and other stuff they would put there to keep kids occupied. The stores would end up getting other machines and then there was a explosion of designs followed by the local mall renting out huge spaces to video arcades who took your money and gave you tokens. I forget how long that craze lasted but I think it was the availability of decent home systems and high mall rent that killed them off. There were still places in the mall that had a few machines after that mostly racing games and multi player fighting games. Years later games with light guns seemed to make a comeback at the local truck stops along with full motion video games I hated.
 
My daughter had a birthday party at the local skating rink a few years ago. I spent a fortune to rent the whole place out. The last time I set foot in there, Michael Jackson's Thriller was playing on a big screen and everyone was wearing fluorescent colours. The big screen was gone, the video arcade section was removed and a "bounceyhouse" installed. Otherwise everything was exactly the same right down to the fluorescent triangles on the wall.

Almost no one actually showed up. Of the ones that did, only four or five people could roller skate. I actually spent all day skating just make it less boring for my daughter. I even convinced my brother and his wife to skate, so we wouldn't get kicked out ( they have a rule about ten people skating minimum!). She broke several bones and it was all my fault.

Don't get me started on bowling alleys. Thanks to AMF, they've all been replaced with "bowling centres" which are really discos with improper bowling lanes. One of the last real bowling alleys round here burnt down a few years ago. There's almost nowhere left for serious bowlers. There is Holler House but my wife refuses to go there because of the other things that go on there. But that is still a real bowling alley, if not the only real bowling alley left anywhere (yes maybe).
 
Unknown_K said:
I never went roller skating, just not my thing.

The original arcades were for pinball machines in the 70's. I actually liked playing pinball at local bars when I turned 18 (before they made the drinking age 21).

Anyway the first video games were just dumped in stores. My first look at a video game machine was space invaders just inside the door of a local grocery store my mom dragged me to when I was a kid of around 10 (boy did they eat up quarters). They would be by the bubble gum machines and other stuff they would put there to keep kids occupied. The stores would end up getting other machines and then there was a explosion of designs followed by the local mall renting out huge spaces to video arcades who took your money and gave you tokens. I forget how long that craze lasted but I think it was the availability of decent home systems and high mall rent that killed them off. There were still places in the mall that had a few machines after that mostly racing games and multi player fighting games. Years later games with light guns seemed to make a comeback at the local truck stops along with full motion video games I hated.
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Thats true, some of my earliest arcade games were in the 7-11 convenient store. I like pinball too. I dont like these pseudo arcade places where you have to buy tokens to play the games. Thats not an arcade, thats a timeshare.
 
KC9UDX said:
My daughter had a birthday party at the local skating rink a few years ago. I spent a fortune to rent the whole place out. The last time I set foot in there, Michael Jackson's Thriller was playing on a big screen and everyone was wearing fluorescent colours. The big screen was gone, the video arcade section was removed and a "bounceyhouse" installed. Otherwise everything was exactly the same right down to the fluorescent triangles on the wall.

Almost no one actually showed up. Of the ones that did, only four or five people could roller skate. I actually spent all day skating just make it less boring for my daughter. I even convinced my brother and his wife to skate, so we wouldn't get kicked out ( they have a rule about ten people skating minimum!). She broke several bones and it was all my fault.

Don't get me started on bowling alleys. Thanks to AMF, they've all been replaced with "bowling centres" which are really discos with improper bowling lanes. One of the last real bowling alleys round here burnt down a few years ago. There's almost nowhere left for serious bowlers. There is Holler House but my wife refuses to go there because of the other things that go on there. But that is still a real bowling alley, if not the only real bowling alley left anywhere (yes maybe).
Click to expand...

Wait, who broke the bone? How? I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN! We have this river here, and there is this several mile stretch where you can rent a tube and do the whole lazy river experience. There are 4 area where the water speeds up, to call it "rapids" is an exaggeration. been open sine before I was born, and actually still brings in a decent crowd today. I took my kids several years ago because I have such good memories of it.. They had a TERRIBLE time.... They were terrified for some reason of just floating and slowly going downstream... they pretty much ruined it for me.

As far as bowling, I was in a league (ABC) for a couple years. Remember I mentioned I shattered my wrist at age 12? Well that made me a pretty inconsistent bowler. I joined to drink and spend time with friends regularly. Anyway the other guys took it soo seriously they weren't a fan of my bowling.. Not much I can do about it with my wrist, I tried my hardest but some weeks I had it others I didn't. Still that way with bowling today... My son likes it. But we can only do about two games before they loose attention span.
 
Now that I think about it there were three people with serious injuries that day...
 
I think I broke my pride at one of the local ice skating rinks last year. I skated faster than a thirty-something showoff and slipped and landed square on my backside. Everyone in the place froze. :oops:
 
Ahh humiliation, burns hard at any age.

Honestly never tried iceskating.. I think I am logically avoiding it.

My wife grew up skiing, I never tried that either. But if Sonny Bono taught us anything......
 
I grew up ice skating and XC skiing. I got back into skiing in 2006. It was like starting over. I've been ice skating again for about three years. I need to get my own skates. The rental ones are very hard on my ankles.

When I was a kid we would skate on the local river. Many times on thin ice.
 
I used to go out and play on frozen ponds, but ice skating never appealed to me. I already knew how to rollerskate, didnt feel like relearning a seasons thing like that.. Wish I learned to ice fish though.
 
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