The Arcade Rollerskaters

Four families, all-day passes, many over-filled picnic baskets, and fourteen kids ranging from the ages of five through fifteen. It was already too warm for jeans and t-shirts by 11 am so the six of us, the  girls of the teenagers that were allowed to roam the park without a chaperone, decided to go into the ladies locker rooms here at the amusement park to change clothes. Each of us donned tanks and short-shorts and sandals of various colors and patterns. I had something in purple and hot pink, of course and chose an incredibly comfortable pair of sneakers, to run if I had too.

Every ride for the next hour and a half, because lunchtime meeting was at 1pm sharp and we needed to get too the other side of the park for food, seemed to make my head spin more than it could tolerate. The younger two girls, aged 10 and 11 could ride the coasters for days, if we let them. Twice on the big dipper and I had had about enough ups and downs to last me a lifetime, so I wandered to the arcade.

In there was a few video games alongside the walls to the right and left of the entrance and a few more lined the backwall as well as an old jukebox, basketball hoop and roulette wheel. The jukebox fascinated me. Why? It was the prettiest piece of furniture I had ever seen and the sound was as clear as the bells on any church within 100 miles. This was a beauty from the past that played the present tunes kids were listening to whenever they could.

The 'funhouse' part of the arcade almost seemed a waste of time until inside when you could see a few rollerskaters skating around an island with palm trees, mirrors and several colored lights. Nothing special unless the right song started playing. I was just standing there wishing I was somewhere else when one of the guys wearing skates winked and dance-skated around me showing off and doing tricks with disappearing hankerchiefs and colored feathers miraculously coming out of his  . . . ears ? "No can't be", I said to myself softly.

Then there was that beautiful angelic voice of ONJ, and yes it was, magic ! Coming through loud and clear on the jukebox and helping the skaters float across the room while all I could do was drift through the magic and know this summer outing turned out pretty good afterall !