– [Narrator] How would I describe the vibe of Cascade on a Sunday night? You would see 500, 800, 1,000 people in the facility. You have this culture that has been created, and it’s just growing out of control. And you don’t really experience that anywhere else but here. – [Second Narrator] When desegregation began in the late ’50s and early ’60s, some roller rink owners did not take kindly to it. They decided to create themed nights specifically targeted towards African-Americans. If Black roller skaters made an appearance on other days of the week, they found themselves unwelcome.
But those nights ended up turning into something all of their own. – I didn’t realize the impact that a roller skating rink has on a community. They would just open up a skating rink, and, boy, people came, and it was always crowded. So all of those things came together
To really blow roller skating up. Here is what so many people gravitate to. And I didn’t realize until I actually built Cascade. – I don’t know where I would be without roller skating. It saved me. So Sunday nights at Cascade is amazing because of the energy. We come, you got your crews, you got your single skaters, you got your couples, and it’s time to show out. It’s the real Atlanta culture.
And you can kinda see the style that Atlanta does. We call it riding in Atlanta, it’s just a really cool, like, you ride the beat and they go fast, so we wear the low Carerra skates with the big speed wheels, and you see the guys doing the routines
And there are a couple of original groups that still skate, and that got the style started. The roller skating culture is like an underground family. We have a Facebook, we have a skatebook. It’s kind of addictive, it’s our drug of choice, and it’s a nonstop party on wheels,
So that’s kind of how I fell in love with it. – Even on a Sunday night, we have people that will tell you they’ve been skating here since they was eight years old. It’s kinda like the mom, the dad, the teenager, the little brother, and they all are skating.
It’s just a lifestyle that when you come here, you get the energy of all different types of people, all different types of walk, but when they come here, they’re skaters. So all those things kind of bundle up into this building that makes this place, to me, what the community would miss
If this skating rink wasn’t here. That’s why it’s been here for so long, it’s still thriving. You make it about the community, everything else just kind of falls into place.
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