Cool story from old skating rink

GameRoomKid

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Today I drove past the old Woodside Roller Rink in Honey Grove, PA. The owner was out mowing grass. It's been a few yrs since I saw him last. I stopped in and we shot the shit for an hr or so. The roller rink has been shut down for a few years now and the owner told me he wanted to re-open it someday. It needs quite a bit of work done to it. The last time I was there he had the following games: Ms. Pac, Outrun, Gate of Doom, Tapper (with great great side art), Robocop, Asteroids Deluxe and a converted Aliens. The pinballs he has in there are: Flip Flop, Captain Fantastic, Meteor, Stellar Wars, Jungle Lord and one of the baseball pitch and bat games. He also has 2 pool tables and a skill claw machine. The floor of the skating rink needs some work .. but all the old strobe lights are still in tact. The room where the skates are stored needs rebuilt as well as the outside porch with a new roof addition is needed. Anyway's . . I have been asking for a while now if he would be interested in selling any of the games. I asked him again today and he told me he isn't ready to sell any games as of yet because if he re-opens, he wants all the games in there so the kids can play, but if he doesn't re-open he will sell me any or all the games in there. I then asked him if I could go in and see the games again.. so we walked in and he turned the lights on. Only half came on so it was hard to see in the dark. We plugged Gate of Doom in and it came right on. Awesome!! Then we walked over to the wall that had the skill crane, Outrun and Ms. Pac. He handed me the cord to Ms. Pac but it ended up being the skill crane. hehe! :p Finally we hooked both Outrun and Ms Pac up. Both came on.. Outrun played blind.. but then the monitor came on but was all over the place. Told him I thought it just needed adjusted. Finally .. Ms. Pac came on. It fired right up. After sitting for over a year if not longer, it fired right up like it came right from the factory! It was an awesome feeling and sight. We added 2 credits and I played away for a few minutes before we walked around looking at the rest of the roller rink. He then told me that his retirement plan was to have the roller rink up and running 7 days a week, all day long. Since it was paid for already, he didn't care if he made 50 dollars or no dollars. He just wanted to see it up again. I told him that one of my dreams was to own any of the roller rink games for nostalgic memories. He smiled to me and promised I would get one of the games outta there someday. We drank a coke and locked it up for this week. He goes there every 2 weeks to mow the grass.. so I told him if he needed any help with getting it back up and running let me know. We agreed that from now on when he's over there, I will call and meet him there. While he mows, I will go around cleaning the games up.. turning them all on and playing them to make sure they work or if one doesn't work.. have his guy come fix them while I'm there. It was just an awesome feeling to see the games again. Here is a link to the pictures I took years ago when it was still up and running. Everything looks the same now, except for all the dust!! http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/278525663FkPNGk?start=24
 
Cool story. Aliens looks like it might be a Qbert. :) He needs to get the place open again.
 
Great story. My town had a roller rink (Merryland) when I was growing up, and I have a lot of fond memories of going there, even though if you fell down you'd get up with a pretty good level of crud. But, it had an functioning pipe organ that would sometimes be played, so that's something. I remember it having a Galaxian and a Crazy Climber back in the day.

I wonder if skating rinks and bowling alleys are actually on the rise again due to economic conditions (aka cheap entertainment), or if the next generation of children will totally miss the fun we experienced in years past.

Drive-in movies are another lost facet of life that I miss. But, real estate costs what they are, I realize that it's more profitable to turn that acreage into a strip mall. Sigh.
 
This is a great story! Reminds me of the skating rink where my wife and I grew up too. Same couple owned it for the last 40+ years and are still running it to this day. Long past retirement age, and with it fully paid off, they just like to see the kids happy. Outside of the bowling alleys that rink was where I got hooked on video games as well. This post brought back a lot of awesome memories. Thanks man :) I think we need to swing by and say hello to Buddy and Dorris at the old rink next time we're down in Texas.
 
My hometown had a skating rink back in the day. I hated roller skating becuase I was horrible at it and kept falling on my ass. My parents dragged me there so that my brothers could skate. My only consolation was the Centipede machine. I don't know if there were other games there or not, its the only one I remember. The place is now an auto body shop and has been for at least 15 years.
 
Great story; the skating rink in my town is still open and they host PTA skating parties a few times a year. It's amazing to go back to the very same rink I skated as a kid, with my own kids. A little bittersweet though, my youngest is going to middle school next year, so no more skating parties for us.

I keep thinking I should document the rink on a webpage since there were several at one time in town and all the rest have been converted to other businesses.
 
The skating rink was definitely one of the spots when I was younger that I spent a good amount of time playing games. Actually the skating rink I grew up going to is still going strong from what I hear. Kinda doubt they still have the games from BITD though.
 
Awesome story and cool pics. I actually took my boys to the local skating rink for the first time about a year or so ago. It looked exactly like I rememberred, right down to the Simpons arcade game that was sitting in the corner. I don't remember any of the rest of the lineup from BITD, but I do remember playing the hell outta that simpsons game. It blew me away that it was still there.
 
I haven't seen an open skating rink in a while but this thread reminded me of one in Medford, OR. I had to collect there once a week while working for an op. Its been 5 years and I wonder if the place is still open. They seemed to be hanging by a thread at the time. They had been running a daycare during the day and selling houseware items like silverware and cookware on the side. They had 8 games and would make about $200 a week total.
 
I loved going to the skating rink in the early 80's. Cool games, good pizza and hot chicks all over the place. Nice story...hope the guy gets it going again!
 
My brother in law just re-opened up a roller rink that had been closed for a number of years and actually was turned into a thirft shop at one point. The roller rink had been around for like 30-40 years....

A lot of the original stuff was no longer there, but he figured he needed to update the interior and have it used more for roller hockey and roller derby. So that's what he did, put hockey boards in, new changing rooms, etc... but he still has public roller skating as well.

Here is a link to his place now:

http://www.centralcityarena.ca/
 
Very cool story Justin. What a dream to walk into the place you went to as a kid, reminds me of the trailer for the new TRON. I feel pretty lucky that there is still a skating rink, a drive-in movie theatre and several bowling alleys all within driving distance of me. I think I played more arcade games in those types of places than actual arcades. They did tear down the skating rink and drive-in theatre that I went to most in my youth though, so it still sucks to a certain degree. A bit OT, but with Bowling Alleys, it's the remodels and interior updates that are killing their nostalgia. I loved the old teal/orange/green plastic seating, especially the big wrap around booth seating that they always had on the end lanes. Now they are trying to modernize (see: blandify) the interiors. Electronic scoring, though easier, also takes away from the experience a little. I miss the the atomic look those 50's/60's bowling allies had. In the alley I currently bowl in, they actually just painted over all the original furniture. It was orange and teal, it's now white and tan. Talk about cheap AND boring.
 
That guy thinks like I do... since he's got the building paid off, he'll be able to open it up no problem when he retires. The only thing I would warn him about though is that I've known people doing roller rinks recently, and security has became a problem over the years. So they hired an off duty police officer to be there on the weekends, and stopped having problems.
 
Reading about half the lights being on, and the games being all dirty, it almost felt like the TRON 2 trailer..

Glad to hear this guy's not ready to sell out yet.
 
roller derby is big again, and getting bigger all the time.

alot of the PA. Md. Va. youths are really getting into the 50's-80's lifestyle..

tired of getting the new shit crammed up everyones asses.

Retro is in! Arcades/Roller Rinks could come back with no problem. Just needs a push.
 
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