My sister Pee Wee used to wake up in the night shouting. Freaked me out. It was leg cramps. I used to get them in high school and college a lot when I would bike everywhere on my Huffy 314. Nothing like crawling around on the floor, trying to push the calf muscles down against the cold concrete to get that muscle to let go. The ones Pee Wee used to get had to be fifty times worse.
Why, you ask?
Because my sister spent more time on those damn Cyclone roller skates of hers than she did her Pony high tops.
It was trendy amongst the early 80's youths in Kenosha, WI to hang out at Red's Roller Rink. It was more a way of life for the high school set than it was a hobby. Pee Wee would attend long sessions at the joint to hang with her friends, a veritable microcosm of southern Wisconsin life, ensconced in metal, concrete, cheap carpet, cheaper food and a top flight sound system playing Kool & The Gang, April Wine (couples skate), and Steve Miller Band's Abracabra. (all skate, skate slowly, please!)
I believe she socialized with her besties (I think she met Bon Jovi-lover Cindy there, who to this day I see as another sister) her crushes, the refs, and probably the maintenance staff and the cooks too.
I frequented the place occasionally too, don'cha know. However, I was a below average skater at best. I could get around on the things, but I couldn't skate backwards or anything like it. I sucked at braking, as evidenced by the fact that if I even approached anything remotely resembling above-average speed, I was going to hit the wall on the rink corners at the turns.
My sister was a badass. I can still see her tearing it up in reverse, the spins, taking corners with such intensity that she'd get low enough to touch the floor with her fingertips, navigating the place with ease, taking and exiting the ramps like she was floating. Fuckin' unreal....and she did it all on those Cyclones. Top level skates, those. Mom and Dad hooked her up with them for her birthday, or maybe Christmas, I can't remember. But girl had game. She was an athlete.
I'm sure Dad (Richard "LeSkate" Torcaso) thought it was cool Pee Wee was into the sport, as he was something of a legend himself on roller skates. That noticeable scar on Pop's shiny head was due to his Montgomery Ward's days. 'twas a demonstration of roller skates in the Ward's parking lot. He turned backflips in the fuckin' things, kids. Didn't quite nail the landing on one and that's the scar's creator. Dad's love of skating and respect for Pee Wee's devotion to the sport couldn't have hurt my sister's chances of getting those Cyclones.
Anyways, Pee Wee spent way more time at Red's than I did. Long-ass sessions on the weekends, but I don't know how much time was actually spent skating. This was the social circle's center point. A place for gathering where everybody knows your name. Not me, so much, but the frequent fliers for sure. I can remember my sister regaling me with tales of her friends and even the refs (who maintained order and skater safety on the floor). I even think one of them was named T.C. or something.
I told Mom I wasn't sure if I understood the obsession with spending so much time in the place, but I can see Mom setting down her crochet hooks as if it was yesterday. A pre-emptive Ma move that was the predicate for either advice or a story about to be told.
Ma did some skating herself, yo. She told me about her time on the floor a bit and how the organ instrumentation from the then current Kinks' hit Come Dancin' reminded her of the music playing while roller skating (A few years later, she said the same about the sounds of Dire Straits' Walk of Life). Mom had a very similar gathering of friends and cohorts while the wheels below their feet rolled along. It was a pretty great story.
I didn't know anybody at Red's for the most part, but I dug the game room. This was the early days of the Atari 2600 that we had at home, but the arcade machines held a certain glimmer that was different. Red's had Defender, Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede, and a table top football game with the X's and O's as the avatars. The room also had a big projection screen that showed rock videos (I think recorded off mainstay must-see TV program Friday Night Videos), I remember seeing Michael Jackson's Thriller there once.
Red's made Pee Wee happy. She was always smiles when she came home (unless there were teenage romantic bummer moments), and the smiles only made bigger if she were leaving to go in. She often came home with one of her friends from the joint, and the party would often continue on. Laughter and giggles that could be heard up and down Lichter Road. Well, to be honest, I'm sure Pee Wee's 45s of I Ran, Shakin', Who's Cryin' Now, or Chilliwack's My Girl probably drowned them out, but I digress.
Regardless, it made me happy to see my sister happy. She (and others) carried my weight during some real tough fuckin' times. But she lived at home. And she listened. And watched. And protected me.
So if Red's gave Pee Wee joy? It gave me joy.
