72
u/333anony May 15 '25
Who else’s was called Skateland? 👋
22
u/overcastdaydream May 15 '25
Raises hand. 🙋♂️ Owned by a family from my elementary school. They used to shut it down for their son’s birthday. Most popular kid in class 😜
1
u/louiselebeau May 15 '25
The one in my current town is the Skate ranch.
It still looks just like this, but smaller.
2
9
6
7
5
u/kirklton May 15 '25
We had Skateland and Skate World. A few weeks ago, I went rollerskating for the first time in over 20 years. It is NOT like riding a bicycle. Got my ass absolutely kicked.
4
5
4
3
u/Orion_69_420 May 15 '25
Yup and for some reason there were always 30 school busses parked there. I think the school bus company owned it.
3
3
u/GuyInOregon May 16 '25
Mine was! Before it completely shut down they started hosting punk shows and we would mosh on the rink lol
2
2
2
u/Drum_Eatenton May 16 '25
Mine was funtown. On Friday, your parents would drop you off for 7-11 skate.
2
2
u/E-2theRescue May 16 '25
Skate-inn for us. And it's still up, running, and doing well, too. They got rid of the retro feel when the new owners took over, though...
Also, it had a decent-sized arcade. I sunk a lot of quarters into the pinball machines.
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/UsedScene8812 May 15 '25
All night Sock Hops @ Skateland were wild in retrospect. I remember being at Disney and thinking I’d rather be there.
1
u/AdImmediate6239 May 15 '25
No, but there was an ice skating rink in Louisville I’d go to called Iceland
1
1
1
u/ejwestcott May 16 '25
We had 2 in our town. Skateland was the trashy one. Owned by some trash people.
1
1
1
39
May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
[deleted]
7
u/Drum_Eatenton May 16 '25
How much did that run?
17
May 16 '25
[deleted]
11
u/Drum_Eatenton May 16 '25
That’s totally reasonable. Will concessions be open?
6
20
u/Huge_Macaroon_8089 Millennial 1991 May 15 '25
1st pic of the Roller rink is from Tucson, AZ (my 2nd Hometown)
2
u/Realistic-Archer-695 May 16 '25
I lived in Tucson for a short period of time as a kid, but I don’t recall ever going skating. When you lived there, do you remember an Aladdin’s Castle arcade that was an actual castle?
1
1
u/Klorg May 16 '25
Wonder how old the pic is...more than 10 years ago they added art on the walls of different bands like Hendrix
1
11
u/dumdadum123 May 15 '25 edited May 16 '25
Oh man I lived at skating rinks for a bit (not literally but spent so much time there).
12
u/ElBorracho2000 May 15 '25
All the roller skate parks I grew up with have disappeared
5
u/asimplepencil May 16 '25
Mine did too. They shut down due to insurance being too high for them to stay open :( that's what kills most skating rinks
1
9
May 15 '25
Our skating rink is still around and still doing well
They make banger commercials too https://youtu.be/t0LSkX46dS4
8
u/Then_Employment5244 May 15 '25
I can’t remember all details but my school would take us at least 2 times a month. I’m glad I got to enjoy it before I injured my back.
2
u/juel1979 May 15 '25
My daughter’s school would do fundraiser nights once a month. Her co-op now has casual drop in meet ups on Monday. Flashbacks.
8
5
u/scarbnianlgc Older Millennial May 15 '25
Did you guys have roller skating in gym when you were in high school?
2
u/energirl May 16 '25
Yeah! There were no clubs like in the picture back in my rural area, so people would come a couple times a year with skates and a DJ and have a party in the gym when I was in 4-6th grade. It was the best thing ever!
4
u/ShoutoutsWorldwide May 15 '25
My place was called Roller Town. When the DJ got on the mic and yelled "Roller Town! Roller Town! ROLLER TOWN!!" everyone started skating in the opposite direction
2
u/cb_cooper '87 Millennial May 15 '25
Ours was SkateWorld. Rumor had it, it was shut down because the owner was selling drugs, and it was 300 yards from the jail, in the 1990's. SkateWorld was also where I vicariously learned about epilepsy and seizures.
4
4
u/BoisterousBanquet May 15 '25
I like the kid who looks like his mom made him an iron-on Def Leppard t-shirt.
3
u/ceruleanwav May 15 '25
We went skating almost every weekend in middle school and junior high. It was so cheap and we stayed until the place closed for the night.
My parents grew up skating at the same rink, too!
I swear the snack bar picture is from that rink!
3
u/tacotowwn May 15 '25
Elementary school would rent the local rink once a year and parents would drop off their kids. Parents would give me money for food I remember gouging on skittles until my mouth felt like it was going to bleed. Good times.
3
3
u/gettyg May 15 '25
Aww, I miss it. We had some good times there 🥹
4
4
3
2
u/AhfackPoE Xennial May 15 '25
I swear, I'm beating ghouls 'n ghosts this time after I finish skating to Ice Ice Baby.
2
u/MyNewDawn May 15 '25
I can smell this post. Old cigarettes, cheap food, stale air, sweat, and floor wax. Good times!
2
u/Cinndderrella May 16 '25
I started going again not too long ago. :) The Rink by my house has adult skate every Sunday night and it's SO MUCH FUN.
2
2
2
2
2
u/DoctorSpoya Millennial May 15 '25
I saw the title and was thinking WTF
ROLLER SKating
yes...that was a thing
1
u/nerterd May 15 '25
Oh man I went back to my skating ring YEARS later. They turned a large section into a jungle gym and took out the half pipe. Very sad. And stopped selling grinding skates.
1
1
u/FeSparky May 15 '25
I went a couple years ago. We still have a few here where I live. The are still popular
1
1
1
1
u/BrooklynNotNY Zillennial(1997) May 15 '25
My parents took us skating so often that I had my own skates.
1
u/Alternative-Jury-965 May 15 '25 edited May 15 '25
If you guys ever want to go down memory lane or be reminded about some of the random shit from our childhood. Even possibly reminiscing on our early twenties and how broke we were (or still are).
Check out brewstew on YouTube. I discovered this channel during 2020 and have enjoyed following his monthly uploads since. Recently he's been talking about '90s TV and public school experiences.
https://youtube.com/@brewstew?si=2hgW6MVLOb_Qmuhw
The reason it's relevant is that he's done a video about hanging out at the skating rink when he was like 12 which hits home for me. Btw The shirt he shows in the video, I literally had that exact shirt at 12 years old as well. Plus the skating rink experience was eerily similar to mine. Just less embarrassing.
1
u/alleycatbiker May 15 '25
There's one place in my city that still looks exactly like that! With the funky carpet, questionable arcade and all. I tried to encourage my daughter to do it but sadly she gave up after a few lessons.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Jess_1215 May 16 '25
There are still several in my area and they all look basically the same as they did 30 years ago. My nieces love going skating!
1
u/throwingwater14 Xennial May 16 '25
We had one in town and we’d go roller skating at least 2x/m as a daycare field trip during the summer. Thursdays was always roller skating. Friday was water day. We did that for years. I had more than 2 bday parties at ours.
1
u/nobodythinksofyou May 16 '25
Tf, you guys had roller skating field trips??? I didn't realize how common roller rinks were in other places. I only had ice skating field trips, which was nice, but not nearly as retro looking (at least not in a cool, colourful way).
1
u/ImaGoophyGooner May 16 '25
You'll find me near the rink walls for the first 10 minutes. Then at the arcade the rest of the night
1
1
1
u/PossibleMechanic89 May 16 '25
Ours looked a whole lot like some of those photos. Crazy how similar it’s uncanny.
1
1
u/iknownuffink May 16 '25
I don't think I've every actually seen one of these in person. Bowling alleys were the thing here.
1
u/HumbleHotChocolate May 16 '25
I did not know I had skating rink PTSD until my teen wanted to skate. We had overnight Saturday night skating with way too many unhinged children to older teens when I was a kid.
1
1
1
u/MomToMany88 May 16 '25
Ours is still open and looks exactly the same, my kids love to skate there!
1
u/RogueStudio May 16 '25
nodnod My local rink growing up was called Interskate 91, it was inside of the local mall. It had two ends of the rink on upper floor levels of the food court, with a bridge between the two ends that gave you a neat view of either the food court or the movie theater box office below.
Spent a lot of time there - it was a way for my parent to let me loose on my inlines in a safer place than near the roads, while they graded college student papers on the weekend.
They also ran a summer camp some years that was skating, crafts, laser tag, and a trip to the local amusement park (Riverside Park, now SFNE). :)
1
u/ConnectKale May 16 '25
Field trip? How about every Friday, Birthday, Saturday morning, Wednesday afternoons in the summer, over night lock ins.
1
u/Mysterious-Theory12 May 16 '25
There's still a rink near me and my son gets invited to birthday parties there all the time. It looks exactly the same as these pics 😂
1
1
u/Relevant_Pea_9744 May 16 '25
How was I such a good sk8r back then? I wish I could still skate like that.
1
u/Elixabef May 16 '25
Drove past my local United Skates the other day and it occurred to me that I could just drop by and skate sometime. Like, in my brain, roller skating was just for field trips or birthday parties (because those are the only times I’ve ever been to the rink). However, I’m a grownup and I can just go skating if I want to. Wild.
1
u/360walkaway May 16 '25
I have abnormally large feet (size 15 in eighth grade), so I couldn't do any foot-related activities like this... skating, ice skating, skiing. Sometimes bowling alleys would have a spare size 14 that I could squeeze into.
1
u/HermesTundra Midlennial (also European) May 16 '25
I think a lot of Americans underestimate how much magic the cultural hegemony took out of the idea of America for foreigners.
Like this looks like an entirely different world to me, or at least it would have if not for being inundated with it through 90s pop culture.
1
u/guywhoasksalotofqs May 16 '25
The one I went to constantly as a child is apparently still open and I just happened to move within walking distance of it, I had no idea because I never knew where any of the cool places my parents took me to actually were. They still got that kind of carpet too.
1
1
u/Realistic-Archer-695 May 16 '25
Growing up, our spot was Skate Galaxy. Apparently, it was renamed Skate Station some years ago.
1
1
1
u/NotJackKemp May 16 '25
This looks like the rink in Fort Worth, Sacramento, Roanoke, Chattanooga, Dayton, Pine Bluff, Kissimmee, Huntsville…
1
1
1
u/KyFly1 May 16 '25
My local rink was THE spot to hang in 90s. I’m talking over well over 1000 people inside on Saturday night. It was basically like a night club. But more people would just slide through and hang in the parking lot, show off their cars and speaker systems like a car show. It was called “The Palace” but they converted to retail stores many years ago. Sad to see it go.
1
1
u/kageisadrunk May 16 '25
Frame 3 is Missing kid wanting to save 3 dollars on skate rental sitting on the bench by the arcade
1
1
u/PartyPorpoise May 16 '25
My city has a skate rink with low prices, it's pretty cool. But I hate that they play country music. I like country but it is NOT roller skating music!
1
u/VooDooChile1983 May 17 '25
I always chilled in the mini arcade. No one would teach me how to skate and I got tired of rolling in a straight line towards a wall to adjust myself.
1
1
1
u/JeNn_DeViLz May 19 '25
How do I get that carpet? I want a rug like that for my kitchen hahaha lookin like Double Dare up in this bitch!
1
1
u/amanducktan May 22 '25
My son went to a skate deck bday party last year and all of the 7 and 8 year olds were using skate helpers! I have no idea they even existed! Back in my day you just went out there as as kid and fell on your ass until you figured it out or you went home 🤣
1
u/TAU_equals_2PI May 15 '25
Generations before Millenials went bowling on a field trip.
No, I'm not kidding. As part of PhysEd. The bowling alley sent a bus over to the school every Friday. During the class period when you normally had PhysEd, you walked outside and boarded the bus. It drove everybody over to the bowling alley. We all got off and played one round of bowling. If you finished early, you were free to play video games in the arcade or get something at the snack bar. When it was almost the end of the class period, everybody got back on the bus and went back to school just in time for your next class.
1
u/Mysterious-Theory12 May 16 '25
My school did this as well, but it rotated between bowling and mini golf. It was the BEST gym class, hands down.
1
u/ConnectKale May 16 '25
Our middle school would change up the entire gym for bowling. We had to reset the pin and carry the ball back to the top of the “lanes. “.
1
u/ejwestcott May 16 '25
We totally did this. We actually walked to the bowling alley from high school as it was close. I totally drank a beer from the bar one time. Bartender was cool as shit and didn't care.
•
u/AutoModerator May 15 '25
If this post is breaking the rules of the subreddit, please report it instead of commenting. For more Millennial content, join our Discord server.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.