Monday, March 9, 2009

A bittersweet day..

Today I also found out that Albuquerque's dear old Rollerking skating rink will be closing at the end of March. This is surely a sad day for roller skaters and anyone that has shared a laugh, a Slurpee, a novelty toy or a slow-skate over the past 30 years at this establishment. When I was 12 years old and too cool for roller skates, I learned how to breakdance at Rollerking; something I still do today. Just about every Friday night during my middle school years, I attained several life lessons on social skills, how to talk to girls and how to have fun all thanks to Rollerking. Thank you Rollerking for giving us kids of the 90s a place to hang. Now upwards and onwards to the kids of now and their ideas of tomorrow. 

3 comments:

Jhood21 said...

Here is the website to Rollerking

for the love of frank said...

oh man...
i took my daughter here for her
5th birthday. she cried the whole time. cuz her dad had her on sugar pie and no sleep!

i was a bigtime rollerrinker as an adolescent. that was my weekend nights! very fond memories. it's a fantastic passtime for kids in that precious space of time, post childhood/pre independence.

i must say though, i'm not surprised it's closing. the place was a TOTAL DIVE. i never went back after the aforementioned bday party, because the place gave me the heebie-jeebies. had they invested a bit of their RIDICULOUS entrance/rental fees into upkeep and maintenance rather than[presumably] unrelated endeavors (what were they doing with the revenue, building a deck or putting in a pool at home? or paying people to keep silent about illegal undertakings--i swear the place felt criminal), they might have created an atmosphere that folks would consider pleasant!

had you been there recently jhood?
and if so, did you catch the same feel, or was it just me?

Jhood21 said...

You know, that place has always been 'runned-down' and a bit heeby jeebeyish.

God knows what they spent the revenue on, Warehouse 508 recently tried to throw a 70s throwback roller ball there as well as a 'fair well' event for the place. But the owner said he was not interested. A few days later we come to find that RK is having a RK alumni going away party for themselves. Stolen idea? who knows. But I remember going there when I was in 6th grade and no joke, the place still looked the same.

Since those days, I wonder how good business was.?