Roller-skates are Rad

When I was in 4th grade I got a pair of roller skates. The white ones with the pink wheels. I loved roller-skating – on the weekends I’d go down the street to Duveneck Elementary to skate in the tiny parking lot.
In 5th grade I fell skating in front of the office and broke my wrist. It’s the only bone I’ve ever broken. It hurt like crazy, especially because we didn’t go to the doctor until the next day. Casts are really annoying. One day at school I had to go to the nurse’s office because I had gotten a pencil stuck down in my cast. I had an itch and I had wanted to scratch it.
Moving on.
A few years later I had outgrown my old skates and wanted to get another pair. So I went to Palo Alto Sport & Toy World to look at what they had. I definitely didn’t want the white skates with pink wheels this time around. The thing I loved about Palo Alto Sport & Toy was that the roller-skates were tucked into the back room with all the skateboards and cool stuff like that. In addition to my personal preference, I also knew I wasn’t going to go in there with all the cool sk8erbois and walk out with pink & white roller-skates! So I chose the black ones with blue wheels. The guy at the counter tried to talk me into buying the girls’ skates but I stated firmly that these ones were the ones I had come for.
I spent many a blissful afternoon practicing my turns in that parking lot of my elementary school, listening to a mix I had made especially for skating: PM Dawn, U2, New Order, Cliviles & Cole, Nirvana, Jesus Jones, EMF, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Pet Shop Boys. I wonder whatever happened to that mix tape…
Later on when Rollerblades became all the rage I saved up for a pair but was bitterly disappointed with them. They were awkward and bulky. More similar to ski boots than roller-skates. So I eventually sold them. It took me many more years before I could part with those black roller-skates with the blue wheels.