Last Sunday I was watching the Signed, Sealed, and Delivered marathon and on one of the issues
they were singing a song with these words:
I’ve got a brand-new pair of roller skates, you have a brand-new key…
Now I have to admit that it has been awhile since I last
roller skated. And I don’t know much
about today’s skates. I do not know if
they need a key. If they don’t, I got to
wondering if today’s youth even knew what those words meant. But they took me back to my childhood and the
skates I used to have…and the key that went with them.
Once you got your skates (often as a “special” birthday or
Christmas gift—or more likely handed down from an older brother, sister, or
cousin), they were yours throughout your skating lifetime.
Our skates were a two-piece, all-metal affair without a
“boot” attached to them. That’s because
they were worn on the outside of your own shoes, were completely adjustable,
and long-lasting.
All because of the key.
Each of these two pieces had a set of wheels situated near
the toe and heel ends, and were held together with a pair of bars. If I remember correctly, the bars had rounded
sides and slid inside each other with the flat side against the skate. These bars had a slit in them for a short bolt
to fit through. Its nut rested
underneath the skate between the edges of the bar. This made them adjustable in length. The toe piece of the skate had two clamps—one
for each side of your shoe—that fit about level with the base joint of your big
toe and your little toe. Underneath the
skate, holding these clamps was a screw that had a square end. The back end of the skate had a metal piece
about an inch high with slits on either side.
It was shaped in a curve to accommodate your heel and keep your foot in
place. A flat leather strap was threaded
through the back and around your ankle, like a belt, to keep your foot in
place.
The key was vital to making your skates fit. At one end of the key was a hexagonal opening
that fit over the nut and tightened it at the length needed for a good
fit. It was also a convenient place to
put a long string or leather thong so you could hang the key around your neck,
in case you needed it. The other end was
a square opening that fit over the screw for the clamps, so the clamps could be
snugged against your shoe while skating, and loosened when you were done. The middle of the key was wing shape to make
it easier to tighten or loosen the clamps.
Since we lived in the city, there were cement sidewalks
where we could skate for hours. And there
was always our favorite playground, the road, where we could skate, too. A chore our mothers often gave us was to run
to the neighborhood grocery store for a loaf of bread or something else needed
for the next meal. It was fun going on
our skates. It depended on which grocery
store we went to whether we skated up a hill and then sailed back home, or
sailed on the way to the store and skated up the hill coming home. Our town had so many hills that wherever you
went, you went either up or down!
I preferred to go to the store that was down the hill. You see, all the sidewalks we skated on had a
full, dull sound. But the house at the
bottom of the hill, after you turned towards the store, had a sidewalk with such
an interesting hollow sound. I never
could figure why it sounded that way, ‘specially since the cement seemed just a
solid as the other sidewalks.
Every once-in-a-while we were able to spend a Saturday at
the roller rink, an indoor skating rink.
However, we were not allowed to use our street skates there. We had to rent their skates with the wooden
wheels which were supposed to be kinder to their polished wooden floors. Our metal wheels might have dents or imbedded
something-or-other in them which might damage the rink’s floor.
These skates were the luxury skates, because they had boots
on their wheels. As times got better and
finances became easier it became the “in” thing to have your own skates for the
rink. In our teen years, it just wasn’t
“cool” to skate outdoors anymore. So
often, under the Christmas tree, there was a box holding a pair of booted
“rink” skates. These came at a time when
our feet did very little growing, so it wasn’t necessary to buy multiple pair
to keep up with changing foot sizes.
For me, like for most of my friends, high school graduation
pretty well ended our skating careers.
Once in a while I would take our kids and go skating. In our area, rinks came and went, as it didn’t
seem to be a lucrative business.
By the time skating rinks were “back in” again, it was the
grandchildren I was skating with. By
this time, rinks were no longer allowing wooden rollers on their floors. Since wooden wheels had become the norm for
street skates, rink wheels had progressed to neoprene, or some other newer
product. And although the skates still
had four wheels, they were now in a straight line instead of on four corners. The last time this old lady went skating, she
barely was able to keep her balance, even though the rink owner had a supply of
old-fashioned non-inline skates.
I am content to leave the joys of roller skating to the
younger crowds, as it should be. But I
shall forever keep the fond memories of my youth’s skates—and their keys.
What about you? What
are your fond memories of roller skating?
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