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Pueblo Colorado Posted Jan 2003 Many significant events took place in the year 1953 including the end of the Korean War and the staging of a major bus Boycott in Baton Rouge Louisiana where Blacks fought to desegregate the city's bus system. Neither of those events, however, was as significant to a young teen living in the Midwest as the day he received his first pair of roller skates. Melvin Hughes grew up in Springfield Ohio and in 1953 at the age of 13 he developed an interest in skating but was frustrated because his father refused to buy him a pair of skates. Since his younger sister had a way of getting what she wanted, he convinced her to talk their father into getting him a pair and he has been skating ever since. SKATING WITH THE CHILDREN Today, at the age of 62, he drives two hours from and to his home in Pueblo Colorado to skate every Sunday night in Denver at Colorado's only R&B adult skate session. He loves skating so much and wishes he could do it 2 or 3 times a week but those opportunities are not available. Sometimes he skates in his home city at sessions for children and finds that many times he is allowed in free of charge. When children see him coming in with his skates their facial expressions tell him they are thinking, "what in the world does he plan to do?" They are pleasantly surprised when he gets on the floor, especially when he starts spinning. He does not spin as much as in the past when he excelled at spinning on both toes and one foot spins performed while holding his free leg up. Occasionally, while practicing, he still locks into a nice one which can put him in the spotlight. He laughs in remembering the time he was at a children's session and got into a spin that seemed to last and last and when he came out of it everyone in the rink was applauding. He was not spinning for applause but was tickled at the response he received. BACKWARD SKATING Another strength he has is skating backwards, something he really enjoys doing to mellow music with the lights turned down. He likes to flow to songs from groups like Earth, Wind and Fire, or "Zoom" by the Commodores, a song which is the epitome of the music he most likes to skate to. "It was very popular back in the 70's but I have not heard it played in 20 years...That's the kind of music I like and the more of that the better," he said. His love for backward skating developed when, as a teen, he saw another young skater from Dayton Ohio who went faster backwards than most people skated forward. He never ran into other skaters but went through them and just burned up the floor. Melvin envied the guy and wanted to be able to do the same thing. One night they had an encounter and Melvin found himself keeping pace with the other skater whom he eventually out skated. He was scared and surprised at what he had done and remembers the one he admired looked at him, that night before leaving the rink, with a newfound respect. The other skater never returned to the rink which was unfortunate because Melvin had hoped they could become friends. CHANGES OVER THE YEARS He continued skating in Ohio and later moved to Cleveland where an uncle had opened a skating rink called The Blue Goose at a time when all the local rinks were very active and skating was at its hey day. Later, as an adult, he moved to Cincinnati where he met Nate Ragan, a man who became a close friend. The two became a team and even fantasized about owning a rink together but they never found the right location. That dream died over the years as distance separated them and, sadly, Nate recently lost his battle with lung cancer. Melvin remembers his friend as a great guy who was a skater from his heart and whose memory keeps him committed to quad roller skating. He has seen many changes over the decades, yet finds some things to be exactly the same as they were when he was a youth. When he first began skating, rinks had wooden floors and skates had wooden wheels which after extended use began to disintegrate. The rink would be filled with sawdust and looked as though heavy smokers had been in the room. Children would leave looking as if their hair, eyebrows and lashes had been frosted. That was before the introduction of plastic or composite wheels which are standard today. Another distinctive change was the introduction of a new skate style - the Ohio bounce - that many skaters from that area are known for even today. Melvin had skated in rinks all over that state and saw that most skaters simply "got around the rink" with nothing special about their style. That all changed in 1957 when a couple of boys from Cincinnati visited his home rink. "They came and had a little bounce step going into their skates, they had a longer stride and were so good that they literally cleared the floor...everybody got off to watch them." From then on Melvin noticed a total change in attitude about how skating was done - everybody was doing the bounce after that episode, and it is what sets apart and identifies numbers of Ohio skaters even in 2003. In spite of the changes Melvin has seen, there are some things that have remained the same. The dance steps many skaters perform in the middle of the floor were being done in the 1950's. Melvin never kept up with the names of certain moves but he sees some of the same freestyle steps today that he saw years ago. Also, as there are skate clubs today, so they were alive and well then. In 1954, Melvin became a member of The Flying Eagles, a club whose members were known by the outfits they wore that had the club logo on the back. They all had lights on their skates, the girls' skates had pompoms and they performed dance routines through the center of the floor, each skater following the same pattern. The rink was a good place to be back then and no matter what age skaters were, they felt like they belonged. The same can be said today but Melvin notes that modern skate sessions in some ways do not compare with those of the past. Years ago, a standard session consisted of sets for couples, trios, (even trios backward), ladies choice and mens choice. Today some sessions only include a set for backwards skaters and the rest of the night is reserved for open skating. Melvin misses the structure of those old sessions where the experience was great for all involved. THE LOVE AFFAIR CONTINUES From that time to this, Melvin has continued his love affair with roller skating and the rink where he finds that "when you are in that environment age does not have anything to do with it." He thinks many skaters believe they should stop skating because they reach a certain age but he continues because it is great exercise and helps him remain energetic about his daily life. There were times he thought maybe he was too old to continue, but hearing about another skater made him see how silly that idea was. "I heard a story about a fella who was my senior by 10 years and he was still skating. Somebody asked him about being out there [on the floor] and his response was, 'I came here for me, not for you.' I said that is the wisest thing I've heard...Skating has been a great part of my life, I love it!" - Kim Muhammad - |