Hard sole shoes, dress up or daily wear were required. Hello, We usually wore low cut “tennies.” Then when the high top over the ankle versions became popular, we wore them almost all day and night. We tried to clamp in our high top tennies in the steel roller skates. For a short time, on smooth surfaces, they worked. But, the moment one did hard turns or tried to slow down, the tennies came off. So, we figured we did not like those dress up shoes anyway, so, we dug those out of the closet and now, the tightening clamp was getting almost difficult to turn and that meant it was clamping down on the sides of the hard sole and gripping. Now, we could skate on any surface, smooth sidewalks, bumpy sidewalks, street asphalt or concrete, but the best place to skate was our neighborhood elementary school. The wide open playground was flat, smooth for safety and when it joined the nearby buildings, it turned into smooth concrete down in the connecting pathways. It was a never ending skating park. Between the buildings, the sidewalks looked like tunnels as some parts were arched pathways between two buildings. But, as soon as the arched tunnel was ending, the rest of the sidewalk was covered like an open car port. The sides were open, the sidewalk was concrete and the covered top protected all of us when it rained and we had to get to our classes. That was the grades 3-6 for the “big” kids. The kindergarten side of the campus was single story and no covered sidewalk between the two low buildings. The playground was all smoothy asphalt with lines painted on for games and baseball/softball fields. The basketball courts were concrete and had their own area of the whole campus. There were two grassy areas for football, too. Jnaki For a long time, our mom would see us roller skating away from our house toward the school. then hours later, see us skating up the concrete driveway back to the garage. The concrete pad for our dad’s Buick loading and unloading area was great as it was smooth and large enough to do circles and tricks, without going too fast. But the garage floor was not for skating as it was too smooth and the steel wheels skidded on the smooth surface. At first, our mom was mad that there were scuffs on our dress shoes. But, we were given the orders to use our dad’s shoe polish and make our shoes as nice and shiny as if they were new. The next week, they got scuffed again and the same scene played out weekly. Note: Once we got older, we discovered that we could take apart our steel skates and put them on the bottoms of our mom’s wooden crates. It was an early version of a scooter. Nail them on with bent nails to keep the skates on the 2x4 base. We did not use screws as we did not have a drill strong enough to drill into metal. The best thing for steel skates as the years rolled on was their changeover to clay wheels. Now, the slight sidewalk cracks did not hinder the smooth skating and the new fangled wheels gripped better. The clay wheels wore fast and replacements were always available at the corner store. Once the industry developed, then the urethane wheels were the thing on skates and now skateboards. Somehow, as our toddler son grew up, roller skating took a vacation and scooting around was the thing to do, if you could not use the latest skateboard technology. Now, the wheels were so advanced that the original clay wheels turned into urethane versions. Then the urethane versions had grades for softness to harder “street” wheel compounds. It soon became a contest: soft urethane for grip or harder versions to make the street wheels last. YRMV
If you think for one minute that you’re gonna get me to do that you’re wrong mister ( incorrect that is, not right)
The Jalopy Journal
