Douglass Snyder and I go back a long, long way. He was not my first though. I had been through a few others before Douglass and I took up our 30+ year commitment.
It all started in 1969 or so when my family was living in Hawaii and I participated in just about every single after school activity that existed in Honolulu. I took Hula lessons, Tahitian lessons, Ukulele lessons, I wanted to take Maori, but I also had skating lessons three times a week and there were only so many days my mom could drive me to event after event. Plus, I did not just take skating lessons... no. I took dance skating lessons, and freestyle skating lessons and basic skating lessons. I was busy.
I can only barely remember recitals for dance and ukulele, but I definitely remember skating performances because they were not recitals, they were competitions and you won RSRA (Roller Skating Rinks of America) pins for your accomplishments.
When I first started skating I had the typical rental skates. Then mom bought me my own pair. They weren't overly fancy but they got the job done. Of course I outgrew them in no time but the rink had one pair of rentals that were good skates so I started using those, exclusively. When my mom was able, she bought me my own pair of good skates and I had them for what now seems like eternity. I skated a lot.
Before competitions my grandmother would make me a new skating dress from silk my dad had sent from Hong Kong (he was on a ship in the Orient during the Vietnam war) and my mom would take me to get my hair professionally done (except for one time she had bought me a fall which was what they called a finger curled partial clip on sorta of wig). We would have a couple of rehearsals and then the judges would arrive and one by one everyone did their routine. I remember one year they got the music mixed up and I had to skate a freestyle piece to the theme song from "Love Story". It wasn't my music and I was afraid I would fail, but I made it work I guess. I still have the dresses, the fall, and all of my medals :)
When we left Hawaii in 1972 and moved to Maine there were no roller rinks to speak of. There was one in Haverhill, Massachusetts that my mom would take me too occasionally and in Wells there was a cement slab outside that was called a skating rink. We went there sometimes, but it was certainly not anywhere with instructors and competitions. It wasn't until 1977 that "Happy Wheels Skate Center" opened in Portsmouth, NH and that became my second home. There were two problems with "Happy Wheels Skate Center" though, one was that my feet hurt all of the time because I had again outgrown my skates and two, no one was allowed to do anything but skate around in circles! No one knew how to do the "Progressive Tango" , "Gliding Waltz" or the "Collegiate" and absolutely no one was allowed to do jumps and spins or any of the other stuff I had learned to do!
Happy Wheels hadn't been open too long before I started working there. I worked for tips in the coat check room but it meant I got in for free and after the session ended the employees could go out and skate to their hearts content and no one made us go slow or keep our feet on the ground! After I had earned enough tips for a deposit, I traded my childhood skates in on a new pair and worked to pay them off. The were good skates. Precison bearings, Zephyr wheels- I think they probably cost me about $75 and in 1977 earning only tips from the coat room it probably took me a year to pay them off! (I just remembered, a friend of mine hooked diodes up to the plates and a battery in front of the heel and I was the first one stylin' on lit up skates. I have always been ahead of my time!)
By 1978 I had a real paying job at the skating rink. I was the person at the window you gave your money too. I don't remember what I made but it was enough to....... upgrade my skates. My best friend Patti bought my old ones, and that's when I met "Douglass Snyder". Having Douglass Snyder skates was like coming to the rink in a Lambo when everyone else was coming in a Pinto. Even the guy who owned the rink was jealous.
Now one doesn't just buy Douglass Snyder skates. No. One has them custom built. Mine were built with Hyde boots and Rinnali wheels and they cost half of what my first car did that I also bought around the same time. My skates were worth SO MUCH that until I had them paid off I was not allowed to let them leave the rink unless I was going to another Happy Wheels! Was it worth the investment? Well, that was 32 years ago and they were on my feet when I took the attached picture a little while ago, so... yeah!
These skates have not led an easy life either. When they closed Happy Wheels to put in "The Speakeasy" I was left with no where to skate and took to the great outdoors. Of course my best friend Patti who had bought my old skates also had no where to skate so we would roller skate around downtown Portsmouth. Somewhere in Market Square there is a lamp post responsible for chipping my front tooth and knocking me out cold. Patti had to skate back to where ever we had parked, by her self, get my car and come back for me as I was slightly dysfunctional after that! The point is, I have put about a million miles on these skates and with the exception of changing out the wheels and laces in 1987 or so (while on vacation in Maine and attending the Sanford Happy Wheels) and polishing them once, they are the same as they were when I bought them, just tighter on my feet. (Ha! I just remember when I lived in Portsmouth some time later, my car was broken into and the thieves took my stereo, all of my cassettes, and who knows what else, but not my skates. I remember telling the police "Thank God they didn't take the skates". The cop was like, "yeah, they aren't interested in stuff like that". Joke was on them, by that time the skates were worth not only more than the contents of the car, but the car itself!)
When I moved to Texas in 1984 again there was no skating rink. I would see signs in San Antonio on old buildings that indicated a skating rink had existed there, at one time, but it had long ago closed. At the city park in Kerrville there was a huge cement slab that people could rent for parties and such, and I took to going there to skate sometimes. I tried to get my friends into it, a couple of them made an effort but mostly it was just me. I taught Haley how to skate there though, but Haleys idea of anything he did was always to go as fast as possible and not to worry about the finesse. He got frustrated, so mostly I skated alone.
When we moved back to Maine in 1997 I was so excited to find a skating rink in Augusta! I think it had been a Happy Wheels but I don't think it was in 1997. Haley and I started going there quite a bit though. By now in line skates were the thing to have and Haley had them. He also had some little girl come up to me and say "is that your son? He is sooooooo cute" They were each about 12, Haley just about had a heart attack, I had my first panic attack... another time when we were there an older guy (well my age) skated up to me and said "Oh my God, are those Douglass Snyder skates?" I said they were in fact Douglass Snyder skates and he called some other people over to marvel at them. The Douglas Snyder company had been out of business for a long time, now so is that rink in Augusta. They closed it a few years later and it is now the all you can eat Chinese buffet.
I haven't really skated since then. To tell you the truth I have been a little scared. I had knee surgery, I am not a kid or even a teen or young anything anymore and I can't afford to break a hip or anything else. Plus, I had no where to go and no one to go with until... enter Heidi.
I didn't even like Heidi when I first met her, (which means nothing as I don't like anyone when I first meet them) but she turned out to be OK (wink wink) and one day she emailed me something and it had something about roller skating on it and it turns out she is a fanatic skater! We made plans to go sometime, I have turned her down more than a few times but now here it is about a year and a half later, we are actually friends, and going skating. Tomorrow. In Bangor.
That is what has brought me and Douglass Snyder back together. To say we are both vintage is an understatement. The skates are dusty and there was a spider web in one of the boots. The bearings need to be repacked, eventually. I was going to buy new laces but decided to keep the old ones the way they have been for so long. I am going to clean them up tomorrow, tonight I just wanted to make sure I could still get them on my feet. I loosened the laces, I did a few spins in the kitchen, practiced a couple of moves and other than the circulation being cut off on my right foot (skate shrunk obviously) I think I can make it through tomorrow night.
I am not planning on trying any death defying jumps, or to break a speed skating record. I am not even planning on lasting the whole session without having to sit out some of the skate time. What I am planning is to not stand Heidi up (that in itself is phenomenal for me) I am planning to have a good time, I am hoping not to leave by ambulance and if some old dude (my age) comes up to me and says "Oh my God, are those Douglass Snyder skates?" It is going to make my whole night!
I want to mention that my BFF Patti, got married on skates at the Happy Wheels in Portsmouth, NH. It was the first wedding ever in NH on skates and was in the paper, I still have the clipping. 10 years later, in 1990 an elderly driver hit her and her 7 year old daughter and her daughter was killed instantly. Patti succumbed to her injuries several years later having never regained consciousness. Patti and her daughter are buried in Augusta and I visit them often. A couple of years ago a long defunct skating rink here in Norridgewock was giving away their inventory. I took a few pair of skates and thought I would put flowers in a pair and and leave them at my friends grave. They have been there for almost 2 years, undisturbed. RIP Patti. There is rarely a day that I don't think of you and even fewer that I don't miss you.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10186027
Sad and beautiful...THX..
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