National Museum of Roller-Skating

I want you to close your eyes and picture a skating rink, with women and men skating in the oblong oval shape that appears within this arena , with no cutting rules and a ‘speed’ regulation. The women in this image are wearing shorter skirts and the latest fashion in roller-skating, (as there were dress regulations at this time). Now pan back, and watch the crowd. What is shocking to you is that there are no children at this skating rink, just men and women being social. Stop your imagination right there, and shift your mind to skating today. Yelling kids, who speed around the rink as fast as they can and unfortunately crash into one another, leaving angry, bawling kids and consoling mothers. This picture seems more natural for most of us but back when, things were way different.
I am going to be completely honest when I say that I expected the worse from the skating museum. I thought to myself, as I walked in, ‘this will probably be the worst museum yet’, don’t get me wrong I like museums, but a skating museum!? Come on, how much fun could that be! As much as this hurts me, I have a confession to make. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed walking through the shockingly smaller museum and the climate had a homey feeling about it.
As I walked through the museum, I was astonished by all the advances in roller-skating. I think people today, including myself, don’t take enough time out of their day to appreciate all the small things in life, like how roller-skates came to be and the history behind it. And by how, skating is a part of our history and helps us, to an extent, understand the past. A skating rink used to be for adults only and was a social hour, a rink was considered a dangerous place for a child at that time. As time continued, it became more of a leisure recreation and eventually a sport with national championships. Then technology let skate-rollers start entertainment shows. Roller Vanities and Rollerettes, were women who dressed up in big show girl outfits and performed dance routines on television in skates.
In the museum was everything from odd skates, with balls for wheels, from jewelry from champion skaters, movies to outfits and pictures to clubs/sports. They even had stuff on roller hockey and roller basketball! I never realized how much skating was a part of our history. In classes, we are always so focused on the major events in the past that we don’t take time to appreciate the culture behind it, as my old history teacher used to say, watch things change over time.