Skating at the roller rink. The joyful nostalgia of the roller rink seems to hit every once in a while. In fact, I just recently watched an episode of Modern Family where Claire goes through some nostalgic moments when she and the family visit one for a charity event.

Roller rinks are still around today and not just a thing of the past. But how many of us are frequenting the skating rink like we once did back in our childhood or even teenage years? If you do, I applaud you! It’s either that or you’re carting the kiddos to a birthday party or some other event, in which case, I also applaud you.

This week we’re throwing it back to the good times found at the roller rink, the old stomping grounds for us cool kids.

The rave for kids

The lighting you can’t find anywhere else (other than the club). Strobe lights, disco balls, fog machines, laser lights, and tube lights set to the “chase” sequence along the walls. It was hard to not get hypnotized but also pumped you up so that you felt invincible.

This too was my generation’s introduction to blacklights and glow sticks. For some reason we were always surprised when the blacklight turned on and whatever amount of white we were wearing started to glow. And our teeth became so bright! And our eyes beaming! It was always too much fun.

Rollerblades vs. roller skates

The era of rollerblades brought about the very important question of the time. Are you renting rollerblades or roller skates? We all had our preference. Mine? Rollerblades. Not only were they actually pretty cool at the time, but my balance seemed to work better in them than with roller skates. So you’d see a good mix between the two out on the rink.

And I remember the games we’d play in between sessions. There was a “speed skate” where anyone could just go as fast as they could. well, the fast skaters only. And the kids were able to play games like Red Light Green Light, Red Rover, and Limbo. Roller blades seemed to work better for all these various activities!

Jock Jams and other greats

We had some pretty epic tunes to skate to as well. Probably the most famous and familiar song that came about during this era was “What is Love?” by Haddaway.

This song will forever be the one to remind me of the roller rink. Sorry Night at the Roxbury soundtrack. This and other sweet jams like, “The Rhythm of the Night” by Corona, “Be My Lover” by La Bouche, and of course anything by Boys II Men for those “couple skates.”

The roller rink carpet!

And who can forget the black and neon-colored speckled carpeting?

This carpet managed to run up along the sides of the walls too. Don’t run your hand along the barrier as you skate around or you might end up with carpet burn on your palm! The difficulty of transitioning from hard floor to carpet was pretty high. And we probably made bigger fools of ourselves making our way off the rink, no matter how good of a skater we were.

So, whether you’re remembering the good old days or frequent the roller rink still today, there’s a whole lot of good times to be found here. Maybe it’s time to dust off the roller skates (or rollerblades) and head on out to the roller rink!