I want to roller skate.

I am not sure how old we were when mom signed us up for skate lessons.  The roller rink (Does anyone still call them roller rinks?) was in Ames, a town about 8 miles west of Nevada.  We skated every weekend for a while. Mom skated too, sometimes but I do not remember my dad ever coming with us.

Remember how young my mom was!  When I was 12, she was only 30.   I remember one time she was skating with my brother Michael Dennis when somehow she fell on her knees.  She tore her nylons and got a terrible bruise! Mike was a pretty good skater, very coordinated and strong.  Why, you may ask, did we call him Michael Dennis?  I have 2 younger brothers, Michael Jon and Stephen Robert, my blood brothers.  Michael Dennis was 16 when he came to live with us so we had to find a way to differentiate the two of them.  My parents adopted him.

I was a good enough skater that I could skate backwards, do turns, shoot the duck, take the turns like a pro step over step.  I never owned a pair of skates. Once I was old enough to drive, we went to the roller rink in Marshalltown a couple of times, too.  We did the limbo, shoot the duck, backward skates, couples, and my favorite- the hokey pokey.  That's what it's all about.

I am thinking about this because I went to a roller rink today to watch Kari and Alaysia skate.  My son and his wife and her mom were there, too.  Karen and I did not skate.  I wish I could.  How I used to love it!  Oh, I wish I could skate again.

My kids and I used to go skating when we visited mom and dad in Ames.  That was probably the last  few times I went skating.  In 1993 I bought some roller blades. I quickly learned that roller blades and roller skates are not alike at all.  I never got the hang of the roller blades.  I did not like skating on sidewalks and uneven ground.  My only previous experience was on nice smooth, flat cement since I never had a pair of outside skates, you know the ones that fit on over your shoes and require a skate key.  I also discovered that I was afraid of falling!  When did that happen? I was afraid to skate up or down hill.  I was unsure of being able to stop.  Very sad.

At the rink today they had these contraptions made of PCV pipe and duck tape that looked like walkers.   Kids who couldn't skate well used them.  They seemed dangerous to me.  When I was a kid, the kids who were learning just hugged the walls. They did the limbo today but the did not play the limbo song!  It felt the same and yet not the same.  There were very few "good" skaters.  The kids with the skate walkers really got in the way.

When we think back on the past often we think of those times as better and get nostalgic about the good ole days.  I think the best part of the good ole days is how young and strong and fearless I was.  

Halloween Memories through the Years

Yes, I know it is the beginning of September and school just started and it has been 80 degrees or more just about everyday in so far this month even in Port Washington, but remember that storage unit that I am going to get rid of?  Well I am taking inventory of my Halloween collectibles and some of them are going bye bye!

My grandchildren live in a different Halloween world than I did.  They get a costume but they are more likely to go to school sponsored candy collecting. 

My son, BK and grandson Kennedy, age 2

My granddaughter Kari as a spider, age about 1.

When I was a kid, we made home made costumes and went all over our neighborhood, knocking on doors, ringing doorbells, collecting candy from strangers and friends after dark!  Sometimes it was cold and we had to wear a coat over our costume.  It seemed like a big adventure.  When someone answered the door we said Trick or Treat!  If they asked for a trick, I said "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat" and they would give me a treat!  I never soaped a window or papered a tree.  One year I went as a pregnant hippie-only in small town Iowa would this be considered "scary".  My mom and dad did not inspect our bags of candy even though we had things that were not individually wrapped and god forbid home made.  Mrs.  Witkonak who lived on the corner made popcorn balls every year!  Home made goodies were not uncommon.  Just imagine that happening today.  Oh, we heard stories about people putting needles or razor blades in the apples or candy bars, but we never really believed it.  This was a time before someone poisoned the Tylenol.

One Halloween I was invited to a real Halloween party at Janelle Wissler's house.  I can't remember what my costume was.  I can't remember what we ate or who else was at the party.  All I remember was that basement!  It was dark and we had to put our hands into bowls of eyeballs, and containers of guts, etc.  I loved it.  No other Halloween party I have been to ever came close to that one.  

When my kids were old enough to go trick or treating we took them to the neighborhood where my in-laws lived around 41st and Capital Drive in Milwaukee.  There were more family home owners there and we considered it to be much better than the hood where we lived (25th and State St, for real)!  And we were right.  Once we bought our house on 39th Street in Milwaukee, we did not worry about them trick or treating.  They knew their way around the neighborhood, who lived where, etc, but we always checked the candy for problems and to get out all the good chocolate and anything else we liked.  Poor little kids at the mercy of their parents!  We had tons of kids come trick or treating in that neighborhood even though they didn't exactly live in our neighborhood.  Lots of parents came with the kids and nobody said trick or treat and if they did and we asked for a trick they did not know what we were talking about. 

My house on 39th St was always decorated for the holidays and Halloween was no exception.  I had decorations for the window, little knickknacks and of course, we carved the pumpkins.  Leaving them on the front porch on 39th St sometimes was not such a good idea.  Smashed pumpkins break little kids hearts.  Shame on you!  You know who you are, you pumpkins smashers!

Tiffany always wanted to go to the pumpkin farm with me and pick out pumpkins.  Even into her adulthood she still wanted to go.  She doesn't really like to carve them, she just wants the pumpkin seeds to roast.  The last few years we have had carving events at our house or at my son and his wife's house with the grand kids or at my daughter's house. The pumpkins mostly come from Walmart.   This year, I doubt if we carve any pumpkins.  Things change.