Bayswater Roller City nine years on.....
Eug spoke about letting all those ex-roller skaters know about our excursion to Baywater Roller City. I offered, however I seem to have turned a brief rundown into a short essay. Skim if you feel the need!
Baywater Roller City nine years on……
Turning left into the car park bought back memories of quickly brushing my hair and reapplying my lip-gloss, while Mum tells me she’ll be waiting in the car park after the last speed skate to pick me up. It reminds me of getting a pass out, sneaking behind the back and having a cigarette from one of the boys from school, of Tully – yuck! Of Dwyan – yuck (spelling?)! Of excitingly looking out the car window to see who was there and hoping that the queue to get in wasn’t too big.
We walked through the front door, for two of us child-like excitement filled us to the brim while for the other a mixture of slight embarrassment and ‘what happens if someone sees us’ surrounded eagerness (Rob met us there. Can you guess who was who?)
The place still smells the way it always did. I can’t actually pin point what it smells like – a mixture of sweat, rink polish and leather perhaps?
I put my hired roller skates after visiting the Boot Room for a pair of size 10. I skated around feeling not as easy as a thought I would. After about 10 mins I was going around a corner when I felt that one wheels was loose. I quickly rolled off the rink and I sat down next to Eug. I put my skate up onto the seat and said to Eug ‘I feel like my wheel is going to come off’. I gave my wheel a weak push and it caused the whole front metal piece holding both wheels on to completely come off. Eug and I could do nothing but laugh! The screw holding the whole front part of the boot had actually snapped! Yes snapped not unscrewed. If half of my left skate had come off while I was on the rink I would possibly be writing this from a hospital bed. …About 10 minutes later Luke realised his front wheel was loose as well.
Part of the ‘want’ to re-expereince our Roller City days was the food and games – Killer Pythons (Luke shouted us all one, ‘cheers’-ing our snakes to ‘old times’), Slurpys and Sundaes. About half way though the night came the game Corners. When the music stops you all have to skate into a corner and one person throws a Frisbee towards a witches hat in the middle of the rink. The corner with the one the furtherest away looses. After about 3 rounds I found myself in a corner alone until a ‘cool dude’ skates over from another corner and tells me to give him the Frisbee and he’ll throw it. I said ‘No – go back to your own corner’. Anyway….in the end I win and instead of a first prize sundae (which I would have won going back 9 years ago) I get a small crappy souvenir koala bear which I give away to a small kid.
The greasy haired DJ/ Boot Room Attendant, his black inline skates so loose around his rather large legs that I’d thought he’d be able to just step out of them did dim the lights low and spin the disco ball slowly, however he did not call a couple skate. While Luke and I did hold hands for about a quarter of a song but it certainly didn’t hold the romance that is would have if ‘Because you love me’ played over the speaker.
While speaking of this greasy haired DJ / Boot Room Attendant I feel I need to add a short ‘add-on’ story. One young, long blonde haired girl about the age of 16 (so I thought anyway) was wearing a corset, pink and black lace which tied up at the back with ribbon. This greasy haired guy says ‘its like a French kiss down under’. YYYUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!
I realise looking back that I certainly wasn’t in the cool group at the rink. I noticed this time round that most of the girls just hung around up near the DJ Box chatting, not once coming on to the rink. These girls looked very ‘cool’. Personally I couldn’t be bothered spending $10 and not skating.
The second realisation from Friday night was the fact that I will certainly be one of those ‘You’re not going out in that!’ kinds of mothers. I have to admit I was a little shocked at the attire of some of the girls….Eug and I both agreed that the worst we ever came in was jeans and a tight singlet tops (…although in second thoughts these were before the days of wearing black tops which just covered my not-so-there-yet boobs at Baby Jooce). Still I think I’d be slightly concerned if my teenage daughter went out in clothes I saw Friday night.
Mobile phones are also a new experience at Bayswater Roller City for us ‘old’ ones. Luke and Rob both has concerns of phones falling out of pockets and smashing over the rink. The ‘young’ ones however seemed to embrace this technology and smsed while skating, one girl even holding a conversation while on the rink with someone not within Roller City.
Apple Carting doesn’t seem to be any longer, they were all hanging up at the back of the boot room and when I went up to the Food Bar to collect my ‘fabulous’ prize for winning Frisbees I asked a teenage boy beside me if they still do the Bus Stop. He looked at me blankly. I decided I’d leave that conversation right there. And this is where I will leave my reminiscence of Bayswater Roller City….still way much better than the Caribbean Rollarama!
Baywater Roller City nine years on……
Turning left into the car park bought back memories of quickly brushing my hair and reapplying my lip-gloss, while Mum tells me she’ll be waiting in the car park after the last speed skate to pick me up. It reminds me of getting a pass out, sneaking behind the back and having a cigarette from one of the boys from school, of Tully – yuck! Of Dwyan – yuck (spelling?)! Of excitingly looking out the car window to see who was there and hoping that the queue to get in wasn’t too big.
We walked through the front door, for two of us child-like excitement filled us to the brim while for the other a mixture of slight embarrassment and ‘what happens if someone sees us’ surrounded eagerness (Rob met us there. Can you guess who was who?)
The place still smells the way it always did. I can’t actually pin point what it smells like – a mixture of sweat, rink polish and leather perhaps?
I put my hired roller skates after visiting the Boot Room for a pair of size 10. I skated around feeling not as easy as a thought I would. After about 10 mins I was going around a corner when I felt that one wheels was loose. I quickly rolled off the rink and I sat down next to Eug. I put my skate up onto the seat and said to Eug ‘I feel like my wheel is going to come off’. I gave my wheel a weak push and it caused the whole front metal piece holding both wheels on to completely come off. Eug and I could do nothing but laugh! The screw holding the whole front part of the boot had actually snapped! Yes snapped not unscrewed. If half of my left skate had come off while I was on the rink I would possibly be writing this from a hospital bed. …About 10 minutes later Luke realised his front wheel was loose as well.
Part of the ‘want’ to re-expereince our Roller City days was the food and games – Killer Pythons (Luke shouted us all one, ‘cheers’-ing our snakes to ‘old times’), Slurpys and Sundaes. About half way though the night came the game Corners. When the music stops you all have to skate into a corner and one person throws a Frisbee towards a witches hat in the middle of the rink. The corner with the one the furtherest away looses. After about 3 rounds I found myself in a corner alone until a ‘cool dude’ skates over from another corner and tells me to give him the Frisbee and he’ll throw it. I said ‘No – go back to your own corner’. Anyway….in the end I win and instead of a first prize sundae (which I would have won going back 9 years ago) I get a small crappy souvenir koala bear which I give away to a small kid.
The greasy haired DJ/ Boot Room Attendant, his black inline skates so loose around his rather large legs that I’d thought he’d be able to just step out of them did dim the lights low and spin the disco ball slowly, however he did not call a couple skate. While Luke and I did hold hands for about a quarter of a song but it certainly didn’t hold the romance that is would have if ‘Because you love me’ played over the speaker.
While speaking of this greasy haired DJ / Boot Room Attendant I feel I need to add a short ‘add-on’ story. One young, long blonde haired girl about the age of 16 (so I thought anyway) was wearing a corset, pink and black lace which tied up at the back with ribbon. This greasy haired guy says ‘its like a French kiss down under’. YYYUUUUCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!
I realise looking back that I certainly wasn’t in the cool group at the rink. I noticed this time round that most of the girls just hung around up near the DJ Box chatting, not once coming on to the rink. These girls looked very ‘cool’. Personally I couldn’t be bothered spending $10 and not skating.
The second realisation from Friday night was the fact that I will certainly be one of those ‘You’re not going out in that!’ kinds of mothers. I have to admit I was a little shocked at the attire of some of the girls….Eug and I both agreed that the worst we ever came in was jeans and a tight singlet tops (…although in second thoughts these were before the days of wearing black tops which just covered my not-so-there-yet boobs at Baby Jooce). Still I think I’d be slightly concerned if my teenage daughter went out in clothes I saw Friday night.
Mobile phones are also a new experience at Bayswater Roller City for us ‘old’ ones. Luke and Rob both has concerns of phones falling out of pockets and smashing over the rink. The ‘young’ ones however seemed to embrace this technology and smsed while skating, one girl even holding a conversation while on the rink with someone not within Roller City.
Apple Carting doesn’t seem to be any longer, they were all hanging up at the back of the boot room and when I went up to the Food Bar to collect my ‘fabulous’ prize for winning Frisbees I asked a teenage boy beside me if they still do the Bus Stop. He looked at me blankly. I decided I’d leave that conversation right there. And this is where I will leave my reminiscence of Bayswater Roller City….still way much better than the Caribbean Rollarama!
posted by Hooch at Sunday, January 28, 2007
4 Comments:
Oh my gosh!.....had no idea I wrote that much until I saw it published....hard to tell when you write in the little box.
Hope at least you Eug, Luke and Rob get some joy from this!
Kel
Oh my gosh!.....had no idea I wrote that much until I saw it published....hard to tell when you write in the little box.
Hope at least you Eug, Luke and Rob get some joy from this!
Kel
Ah, great read Kel. It's all about the smell isn't it!! For me it was that smell, the carpet and the lights that brought it all back to me. In fact the only difference was that I don't seem to be as fit as I was then; which is a concern. So glad we did it, and lets hope we can all do it again in another 9 or 10 years. : )
V. cool post Kel. I did get much joy from reading it.
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