jr67 - are you a writer? You probably should be. Your posts are great fun to read.
Roller skating: I am the right age to have been fully in on the roller rink craze of the 70's and 80's. As a pre-teen in the early 70's I was at the rink whenever I could get a ride and beg a few dollars off my mom. I never had my own skates, but oh, how jealous I was of the girls who did, all decorated up with big pink or purple pom poms on the laces. We all knew how to skate backwards and twirl around, which came in handy if a boy asked you to skate on a slow song. That was very thrilling to a 11-12 year old. As we got older, there were more interesting things to do on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, but I remember those days so fondly. Such innocence.
I got myself a pair of rollerblades in the 90's, thinking it would be a simple matter to adapt to those and skate around the streets and paths in my town (NOT). First time on them I was on a very gentle hill, lost control immediately, and ended up picking road gravel out of my knees and elbows. After some time went by and my knees and pride healed a little, I got myself some knee pads and tried again, on completely flat paths, until I had the hang of it better. I did love tooling around on those once I wasn't terrified anymore.