In which the YA Author showcases her teen years in all their awkward glory.
To be fair, I think this photo was taken circa 1984/1985 which puts me at about 11-years old, so this falls more in the awkward category than it does the the teenage years category. But I couldn’t resist showing off the those bangs. (I’m on the left) and by bangs, I mean BANGS! Those things reach back nearly back to wall I’m standing against. I also couldn’t resist answering your burning question about this rollerskating rink, you’ll be pleased to know that, yes! They have NACHOS!
Why would we wear theses Peggy Fleming outfits to the roller rink? Well, because we had roller skating lessons, sillies! See that beautiful lady between my sister and I? That’s my mom. (Dudes, admire that posture!) She roller-skated competitively before having us kids, once taking second place in the World Championships in Pairs. I actually come from an incredibly athletic family. My dad also briefly played professionally with the Detroit Lions defense (you heard me, Jim). So, yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, I’m a writer. Sorry, Mom and Dad.
Jody Sparks Mugele 
Ooh! Ooh! Brilliant! I love that your mom’s outfit is all skating-business on the bottom, all mom-business on the top. What tricks do you learn? What was your skating soundtrack? While certainly not the accomplished skater you are, I couldn’t help but crave the rink wind against my face when the bells of “They Don’t Know” by Tracey Ullman came on the jukebox.
Haha! I love your comments, LLD. Believe me, I begged my way out of this, asap. I never got beyond Arabesque positioning, crossovers, and edging. (And I had to look those up!)
Songs I hear that immediately take me back to the rink:
Gloria
Hey Micky
Rosanna
Karma Chameleon
I’m sure Amy has a few too– tricks she learned and songs she remembers.
ok — so I learned a jump that I can’t even remember the name of (waltz jump?), however, I sorely remember the floor burns that ensued in the learning there of. And hey, I could get some air under that waltz jump ladies!
OMG — Hey Mickey was what was played when all the private lessons were over and the public was allowed in. It’s possible we had some nachos then.
And Good God! those BANGS! I think we were still getting our hair done at the salon de Mom back then. I’m getting whiplash on this trip down memory lane.
They were really effing tired of people asking if they had nachos.
I will admit right here on your blog that it took me an embarrassingly long time to get the nacho comment.
I blame it on the gnarly outfits and that I was trying to keep myself from laughing out loud at the starting point of your bangs. Who in the 80’s thought THAT was a good place to start the front of your hairline!!
It’s like my bangs are trying so hard to reach back, crawl up the wall, and get to the effing NACHOS!!!!
AMAZING! Yeah, your mom has some gams. Did you skate competitively too, or just do the Snowball and Hokey Pokey really well? I always envied kids who could skate backward. My dad was a rink guard and a natural skater, but his talent didn’t rub off on me then. 🙂
Also, NACHOS!
Shannon, like you, the talent rub-off never happened. After a couple of months, I quit. I did skate backwards though. For a few minutes, at least. “Rink guard” sound really rad!
NACHOS!!!!