Monday, September 19, 2011

Rollerblades

Neon colors were actually one of the highest exported goods during the '90s. Seriously, Wikipedia that.
 I don’t understand the weird shoes that kids wear today that have a wheel in the heel. They don’t make sense to me and seem a little dangerous.

Then again, when I was a kid I probably spent as much time in the summer with wheels on my feet as they did. Mine were called Rollerblades and they were about 80 times cooler.

The inline skate was possibly one of the biggest improvements to transportation during the 1990s. They were like roller skates, but so much cooler, came in colors that rivaled wardrobe of the gang from “Saved By the Bell” and were one of the most dangerous toys given to us by our parents. And this was the 90s when Nerf and Super Soaker marketed almost exclusively at attacking your friends/little sister.

Like so many other things in my youth, my siblings and I were introduced to Rollerblades through older cousins, who mostly used them for street hockey. We on the other hand were more inclined just to skate. As mentioned before, my family has a nice concrete driveway which was ideal for learning to ride bikes and later skate on. It also would have been great for basketball if any of us had decided to actually use the hoop.

I also recall the rather dangerous sport of having to go to another area of our property while wearing Rollerblades. Although we were not allowed to wear them indoors (which meant that Chris did it for fun a few times), if we ever had the need to go around to the back of our house we would have to carefully “walk” with them on, which involved a stance that could only be described as Popeye getting off a horse. Chris and I were better at it than Cait, but I’m sure we all fell a few times. I did at any rate.

Sadly Rollerblades did not prove to be a good mode of transportation, and if biking fell out of favor for me, Rollerblades was quickly behind it. In addition, my mom’s side of the family and our immediate clan became very weary of the devices when during a family reunion my brother was challenged to a race with my oldest cousin on a gravel road at my family’s property. The result was my cousin winning (there is a debate about this, but I’m fairly certain it was her), and shortly after was taken to the hospital for breaking something after a nasty fall. Surprisingly, the incident has not scared Chris out of the footwear.

Rollerblades are far from the most prominent of any childhood memory, but I recall them with some fondness. However, watching kids today, I’m a little glad I stopped using any kind of shoes with wheels because even I would be judging me right now. But for sake of argument, we’ll just let 7-year-old me think they are cool for the time being.

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