A pastime from an earlier age is on a roll these days nancy giles gets us up to speed for many people nothing beats a walk in the park especially on a warm sunny day but why stroll when you can Roll roller skating that four-wheel throwback is staging a surprising comeback from a crowd in queens new york to the southern california coast enthusiasts are going old school and loving every minute of it it feels like ultimate liberation honestly it’s like flying sarah haywood is a 34 year old from san diego
She hadn’t put on a pair of skates in 18 years but that all changed in 2020 was it the pandemic is that kind of the situation that made you want to connect with your inner child again i just realized okay if i’m going to be home for the next 60
90 120 days what can i do to really disturb my soul i say state and it’s like everything goes out the window blackout can’t think of nut nails but rollerskates oh my god that’s the joy it makes you feel like a kid it brings you back to the time where the
World was innocent as far as fads go skating is no flash in the pan charlie chaplin used it as a prop in his classic modern times and fast forward decades later when gene kelly went from singing in the rain for the 1980 film xanadu Fact is skating stretches back centuries and that history is on display at the national museum of roller skating in lincoln nebraska i love skating i have not done it in recent years though peggy young is a consultant to the museum and says the sport began in the netherlands there’s evidence that
Suggests the first skates were made in the 1700s by the dutch wishing to extend their skating season they added wooden spools to the bottom that was the birth of the inline skate which has its wheels in a row but the quad variety caught on thanks to an american inventor well
James leonard plimpton was known as the father of roller skating and this is one of the skates that he patented and you can see here lean you can there’s some some give to it so as you would lean on the skate it would turn make a corner and that revolutionized the whole
Industry of roller skating and what an industry it became roller skating one of america’s popular youthful pastimes there were performing acts and derbies and rinks by the hundreds a few still remain i hear that inside it’s really special it’s really special like guptill’s roller skating arena
In cahoots new york it was sent to the guinness book and it is the largest indoor roller skating rink in the world skip guptill is the owner of this 64 000 square foot time capsule his father turned farmland into the rink that opened on valentine’s day
1951 i noticed in the back there’s a beautiful bronze pair of skates are those that was my father do you have memories of when the rink first opened my father stood at the front door and turned the key in the door and there must have been 800 people
At the front door to come in 800 people lined up crowds used to skate to organ music but in the 1970s a different sound arrived I can’t quite see you in the all-white john travolta saturday night fever suit did you ever do anything like that no i didn’t but my kids did oh they did they did temporarily closed because of covid19 skip guptill is hoping to soon reopen what is it about this rink you think
That’s kept this going where other rinks have kind of come and gone it’s family run and the nostalgia of coming back here people remember that their grandmother had a good time their kids had a good time and now their grandkids are having a good time they never forget that
Rink or no rank people are skating where they can showing off styles and skills level three tanya dean holds zoom classes to clients from around the world here we go yep all right as for me i used to roller skate but that was 40 years ago push off and glide
Sometimes you can like step to the side too i’m slowly getting back on my feet it’s kind of magical with the help of skip guptill’s granddaughter claire a very patient coach
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