Roller Queen

Is it possible to nostalgic for 1990? I guess when your image of it is a cross between 1977, 1986 with a dash of the early 90's. Until last night, I hadn't been in a roller rink since my Freshman year of high school. From what I saw, I guess roller rinks are like bowling alleys in that they seem to defy time. Skateland even has the multi-colored disco lights that flash to the kaboompty-boomp of the music. The thing that really suprised me so much was the fact that a lot of the skaters were still doing little disco-shimmy moves to the beat. I should know though that there's a hardcore subculture for nearly everything, based on the groups I've come into contact with recently: flag collectors, co-ed synchronized swimming, sea-chantey singers. I'd really like to find bluegrass musicians that sang in Czech but I'm not counting on that one. I was tagging along with Emily who was at the Sunday-night open skate for roller derby practice. I'm finding myself more and more on the outskirts of the rollergirl scene, although I'm not going to let myself be a full-fledged groupie. I'm sure there's going to be plenty of middle aged men who remember the 1970's to fill that role.
Why so misty-eyed once inside Skateland? My first real date ever was a trip to an eerily, almost identical roller-rink somewhere outside of Pittsburgh. Earlier that Spring, I'd managed to catch the attention of Karen B. She was in the pom-pom team for the marching band, and I was in the trombone section. We met on the band trip to Florida. She was skinny with long, blonde, permed hair and into Slayer. Best of all, she was a speed-roller skater, not a roller ballerina, and that's why we were at the rink. I'd met her on the band trip to Orlando. She first started spending time on the trip with Joe, a recent friend of mine, so I hung out with them among others. I was indebted to Joe because he was recently responsble for helping me gain a shred of sex appeal, or at least helping me get noticed. We had both been in the school musical. Joe was into what was becoming hip-hop, and his Vanilla Ice hair cut and silk shirts showed it. We were assigned to the same dressing room and before performances, with Bobby Brown in the background, Joe showed me some dance moves. Pretty soon, I was making it "my prerogative" to jump into the inevitable open circle at high school dances, still sporting the khakis and button-down shirts that I always wore at the time. Over the course of the weekend in Florida, Karen and I became friends, simultaneously as Joe made the case for and then proceeded to slime his way out of going out with Karen. After the trip when Karen agreed to go on date with me, it ended the possiblity of friendship with Joe and me, and with it the chances of ever doing a synchronized dance routine at homecoming. Karen and I didn't work out, but at least that night at the roller rink, as we skated around to "The Humpty Dance", for the first time in my life I was out with a hot, fast, rocking BABE.