Skating

When I was sixteen I somehow managed to persuade my Mum to buy me some strap on skates.  My friend Lorraine also managed to score some so we had the best time trying to learn how to skate.  The strap-ons were made of what looked like aluminium and had red leather straps that went over the top of the foot and around the ankle.  I used to skate over to Lorraine's and seemed to fall down every few steps.  I think I spent more time on the ground than I did standing up.  When I got to Lorraine's we went up to Brierley's garage and swept the driveway and then spent the afternoon trying to stay upight.  The garage of course was not open as it was back in the old days when they shut at 2pm and didn't open again until Monday morning. 

After months of trying to skate we managed to stay on our feet most of the time.  We had a trick that we thought was extremely clever.  I would skate toward Lorraine and then duck right down and skate between her legs.  That was it really; we didn't know how to skate backward but had the best fun anyway.

One weekend Lorraine came down to my place and we went to the bottom of Hart Street where there was a steep cement pathway down to the beach.  I know now that when someone says you can do something but you don't think so, DO NOT listen the that person.  So Lorraine got me to believe that skating down the path was a good idea.  Patently it was not a good idea and I definitely couldn't make it to the bottom of the path.  Well, I did make it to the bottom but only after skidding along the ground mashing my hip, knees and hands.  I also must have hit my head because I looked up at her and asked her if she was an angel.  An angel was something she definitely was not.  After that little effort I had to explain to Mum why I had a great hole in my pants.  She was not amused. 

One weekend Lorraine's parents took us to St. Clair Recreation Centre so we could hone our non-existent  skating skills.  We were not quite to the level of the other skaters and also we wore daggy strap ons.  All the other kids had good skates.  I really think I remember that the skates had wooden wheels but I just cannot think if they did or I just imagined it.  At one stage we both fell down and all the other skaters bore down on us like a stampede of buffalo.  Someone stood between the skaters and we idiots so we could get up without being squashed into the wooden floor like insects. 

I really loved skating but life got in the way and I didn't go skating again until we lived in Wagga.  There was a session at the Rec. Centre on a Saturday morning and my husband and the child of my loins (who was five at the time) all went skating.  The man who ran the Centre had some cute little skates for the littlies.  He had a plate with wheels which he affixed to little sneakers.  Kel loved them.  I got back some of my skill at staying up and taught my little treasure how to skate.  Some of the kids managed to teach me how to skate backwards.  I was so chuffed.  It was freezing in Wagga during the winter and when we skated it took an hour for us to even be able to feel our toes.  It was the only time I was ever warm. 

We came back to South Australia and luckily it was just when skating was starting up in the 80's.  Elizabeth Roller Skating Centre had a ladies class on a Wednesday morning and I was so happy to go.  We all had a great time and I managed to get a little more experienced.  There were classes on Saturday morning so my treasure and I went and had lessons.  I just loved that place.  I improved so much that finally I went in a competition and managed to get a gold medal in figures for Old People Who Couldn't Skate All That Well. 

We learned how to do figures that was my forte and I also did dance.  I finally managed to win a state title for seniors figures.  Luckily I was the last one on because we were told just beforehand that we had been starting off on the wrong foot on our Serpentine.  That of course gave me much longer to practice.  I also had extremely good bearings in my wheels so I just kept telling myself that the bearings would get me around the circles.  It was a little easier to win in the mature section because there were only about six of us most times and at others perhaps only two.  The little treasure used to skate against nineteen or so other kids so she was not always in medals contention. 

I won two trophys for Solo Dance.  That is code for don't skate near her or she will make you fall down and hurt yourself.  There were no male skaters for me to skate with but when young Stephen skated around with me counting out the steps he wasn't game to come too near.  At one of the competitions I was worried about stepping off on the right beat so Stephen stayed up one end of the rink tapping out the beat for me.  Something was mentioned after that dance so I skated up to the opposite end where I couldn't see him and started off on the right beat all by myself.

I loved the 80's it was my favourite time.  We had the skating about five days a week and on a Saturday we started at about 7am and finished at noon.  Then we all went to Hungry Jacks for hamburgers.  We all wore leg warmers and had moccies to keep our feet warm.  I was so skinny then that I took a size 12 leotard.  (Times have changed.)  I am really hopeless about  most music but ask me about 80's music and I know all the songs. 

When we shifted from Elizabeth to Torrensville I began to learn to ice-skate at the Ice Arena.  They had sessions on Tuesdays and Fridays.  It took me ages to learn how to ice skate but at first I just couldn't get the hang of it.  However, I kept on trying and finally found that some of the things I had trouble with roller skating were easier on ice.  Because I had skated before I was more sure footed it didn't take long for me to get the hang of staying up and dry.  I joined the ladies drill team, it was like marching girls on ice.  We had a great time.  When the Australian Championships were held in South Australia our drill team won gold.

Six of us decided to go into the Show Skate.  We were called the Six Grannies and we skated to the Beatles "When I'm 64."  How funny we thought 64 was terribly old and now I am two years past that.  Never mind.  One of the girls who could not skate all that well had a walker firstly to help her skate but also I was the crazy granny and I had to steal the walker and the others chased me.  We really didn't quite get the beat of the music and didn't know when we had to do one thing or another so every time we skated it ended differently.  The only one who knew where the bridge was in the song and when we had to do stuff was the lady who couldn't skate.  She must have been so frustrated.  Never-the-less we won gold.  I  have a picture of myself wearing pyjamas and a pink dressing gown plus furry covers for my skates that were meant to look like slippers. The scary thing was that I looked like my Mum.

I came back to live in Elizabeth and skated at the Gawler Rec. Centre for about a year.  One Saturday I had a fall and frightened myself, so sadly I stopped skating.  Now that I have ballooned to an extremely enormous blimpy person I wish that I had kept it up and I would have been as fit as a fiddle.  I hate exercise but I have never thought that skating was excercise it has always been a pleasure.  I think that skating is the closest I will ever get to flying.  Not like flying in a plane; but swooping and swerving and sliding and having the best time in the whole world.  Sometimes I dream I am flying or skating and I wish that I was game enough to skate again. 

Even though people say you can always go back, in this case I believe that I have had the good time and I have all the memories and what I don't have is a broken leg, arm or fractured skull.  Enough said.