- by Dennis Thompsett

The photo shows Sandra Mitchell - Smart's dress rehearsal for a huge dance production number. On wheels. In the Colliseum at the Pleasure Grounds.

It was part of Roller Madness. It took over the town  so completely that even people from my bad- boy end of the East Hill were there.

They put in a hardwood floor and you paid your money. Then somebody took your smelly old shoes and gave you big boots with 4 wheels and a huge rubber nose cone to use as a brake. And away you went. Good luck.

I never mastered the nose cone brake. If I wanted to stop I put one foot behind the other sideways. So my feet were in a T shape. And hoped for the best.

For some reason we always went around in a big circle in an anti clockwise direction. If they made us change direction for a song, many of the not- so - good skaters, like myself, fell down.

Anti-clock, however, I was a terror. I whizzed around the rink like a gerbil on his little wheel, going nowhere, but really impatient to get there. Kind of like I drive here  in LA traffic. Except now I have to beware of other drivers with guns.

I had a style. I clicked my heels together and raised my outside leg in what I thought was a graceful move and only stopped to have a coke and a smoke.

Although I've never been the guy to join in group things, when they played the song Glad All Over I stomped with everybody else.

YES, I'M FEELING

STOMP

STOMP

GLAD ALL OVER

YEAH  I'M REALLY

STOMP

STOMP

GLAD ALL OVER

In fact, you're probably making STOMP STOMP-ing noises in your head when you read this.

My shaky memory suggests that I started roller skating at 13, in 1963 when I first started high school. I was at it for a year or so. I always wanted to learn to skate backwards like a pro hockey defenceman, but never did. Nor did I ever make the transition to in-line skates. I think I made friends in high school and we played pool in that place on 9th Street by the Roxy. That's where we spent our spare time. The next time I looked around, roller skating was gone. Sort of like an infectious teen disease.

It left me with a very happy memory, however.

Come on. Join me in a bit of joy.

Ready?

YES, WE'RE FEELING

STOMP

STOMP

GLAD ALL OVER.

Photo: Sandra Mitchell - Smart