Did you guys know there’s still a roller rink on Franconia Road in Alexandria?
We went to this place last night for a friend’s 30th birthday. It’s set back behind a gas station not far from the Kingstowne shopping center. I was excited, since I skating was one of my favorite things to do as a kid and I hadn’t been out to do it in a while. When we got there, I remembered why. I briedly wondered if the rinks I had skated in back home had been as ghetto is this one- well, yeah, they probably were.
I came to the conclusion that before there was LiveJournal, there were roller rinks. Scores of emo kids cussing at each other, playing out the archetypal dramas of pubescent life while ignoring the grownups trying to accomplish the utterly trivial task of renting skates at a skating rink. The older kid who hot-dogged by everyone else, backwards, forwards, with dance steps, who pwn3d that rink, but is no doubt the world’s biggest loser everywhere else. The eight year old who was pretty good on his blades, but will no doubt remember most fondly the couple-skate in which he got to spend a whole song holding his little crush’s hand.
Was I ever that young? Nights like that make me want to call my mother and apologize for my entire adolescence.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar.
Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC.
