Director's Notes – Episode 82

(NOTE: As always, Director's Notes contain spoilers)

When I was between 3 & 8 years old, I spent my summer days at Classic Day Care Center in Mesquite, TX. It no longer exists. It's a plumbing supply company now.

This is good news because they weren't very good at the "care" part of their title. 

I mean aside from occasionally getting yelled at or smacked, Classic is where I learned to swim and and play soccer and make god's eyes. So it wasn't all bad.

Every few weeks they would put us all in the conversion van and take us on the long drive across the city to Broadway Skateland. I loved this because: 1) I loved skating from the first moment I learned to not fall down; 2) I loved road trips, seeing the world from the backseat. The car-ride games like license plate poker and punch buggy. The thrill of adventure, being away from home. I still love all of these things.

One summer afternoon around 1982-ish, I was so consumed with speed racing around and around in an oval to top 40 music, I stopped listening to announcements. (Favorite skating songs back then: Elvira, Another One Bites the Dust, Call Me, I Love Rock & Roll, and Queen of Hearts). 

Anyway, "the Classic van is leaving" is not a thing I heard over the PA. It wasn't until they played some couple skate song (probably Sailing) that I rolled myself off the wood and looked for my friends. Not at the soda machine. Not playing Ms Pac-Man or Tron. Gone. So I just skated for another hour or so before I told anyone. 

Later, after I got tired - and tbqh a bit worried about being all alone so far from home - I told the skating rink manager (probably not named Teddy Williams) & he called Classic to come get me. The ride back to the day care was long, a bummer of a comedown. The woman driving me told me not to tell my mom. And as I type this story, I realize that I never did.

I looked up Broadway Skateland on Google Maps, and it's unbelievably still there. (4.4 stars on Google even! Good job Broadway!) And it is literally a 7 minute walk (not a half-day-long road trip) from where Classic used to be. Never trust my memories is the lesson here.

In writing this episode, I was feeling some nostalgia for my early 80s roller skating days. I also wanted to include a bit of romance, between characters I've been shipping in my head for a while. So enjoy the love, and enjoy the songs. It's an all-skate.

- Jeffrey Cranor
February 15, 2016