East End Report

In an attempt to mend my broken heartedness over the burning down of Skateland, we took the boys to East End a few Sundays ago. My sister and I spent nearly every weekend of our pre-tween years there. I didn’t expect it to have the charm of Skateland and I assumed it would be more crowded, but I was completely floored when we walked in and were bombarded by the LOUDEST, MOST AWFUL music ever.

Terrified, Satchel and Jiro wrapped themselves around my legs. I looked around for a spot that wasn’t near a speaker in the hopes of calming them down, but there were giant speakers mounted to the ceiling every ten feet. Warren optimistically got skates for everyone, but the boys solidly refused to put them on. After about five minutes my head was pounding and I made an executive decision. “Let’s get out of here. We can go to Dixie Queen next door and eat ice cream instead.”

On our way out, the girl at the counter handed us a flyer and said, “Come back on Saturday morning at 10:00am. We have skating lessons for kids age 0-10.”

“Do y’all play this same music?” I asked like a true fuddy-duddy.

“No,” she said with a smile.

I tucked the flyer in my bag and vowed to never return. But the next week, Warren had to stay in Missouri an extra day. Once I found myself parenting alone on a Saturday, I called my mom and my sister and got everyone to agree to try out the lessons.

By the time I got the boys to East End, we had already been to Target and Michaels and I was exhausted. The boys, however, we’re bouncing off the walls. I was pleasantly surprised to find that East End on Saturday morning was a whole different world from East End on Sunday afternoon. All of the lights were on, the video games were off, and they were playing standard 70’s and 80’s songs.

There was a roller ballerina class finishing up so little girls in leotards were skating around, smiling at the boys. I got them in their skates right away. Jiro was more interested in playing with the games than skating, but as long as the games were off and his skates were on, I didn’t care. Satchel wanted to skate, but was a little intimidated by the crowd. There was a good 40-50 kids there.

After an hour or so, a nice old lady in a leotard skated out to the middle of the floor and started the official skating lesson. All the kids, including Satchel, sat on the side and listened intently to her directions. Soon Satchel was on the floor practicing holding his arms out and using his stopper. (Jiro absorbed the information from the sidelines.)

Once the lesson was over they went directly into the Hokey Pokey and the Limbo. Satchel participated in both and was starting to have a really good time. “This is my skating school,” he said with a big grin on his face. When the limbo was over, the kids were directed to the concession stand to have a free coke. Yes, a coke! (I knew I was the only parent in skates for a reason. I rushed over and procured two Sprites for the boys and strategically placed them at the table so the boys would not realize they were being denied caffeine.)

Next up was the races. All of the kids were instructed to sit in the middle of the floor until their age group was called. Parents were told to stand at the cones to help direct the kids. I took my position at a cone and watched Satchel with anticipation. I didn’t think he would have the confidence to race and fully expected him to just sit and watch. However, when they called for the three-year-olds, my nephew started pointing at Satchel and screeching, “He’s three! He’s three!” One of the leotard girls skated over and took Satchel by the hand and led him to the starting line.

There were about five or six other kids racing and I started to get nervous. Before I knew it, the teacher said, “Go!” and they were off. Satchel sprinted off the starting line like a pro and didn’t fall down until he rounded the corner. He got right back up and took off again, but this time he held out his hands for balance. I was verklempt to say the least.

He was so determined to go fast that he had a hard time staying on his feet. A leotard girl skated over and took his hand to help him finish the race. He accepted her help and did eventually cross the finish line. I was so proud. It’s amazing what my boy can do when his mommy is not hovering over him!

The race was the icing on the cake and Satchel was just beaming. “I like my big school,” he said over and over again.

He’s been talking about his skating school (a.k.a. “big” school) all week. So it looks like we’ll be loading up and going back to East End again tomorrow. Maybe this time Jiro will have his breakthrough skating moment.

Either way, I figure that they will both be experts by the time Skateland reopens.