How to go
What: Skateway’s 50th birthday party
When: 7:30 p.m. to midnight Friday, Dec. 3
Where: 2514 N. Verity Parkway
Cost: $5 admission, $1.50 skate rental
MIDDLETOWN — One of the city’s patriarchs — given up for dead more than once — is turning the Big 5-0.
During a time when it seems kids are more interested in electronics than exercise, Skateway on Verity Parkway is celebrating its 50th birthday with a party Friday night.
The roller rink was built by signmaker Hal Combs, later purchased by Johnny Sowers, a former state skate dance champion, in September 1968 and now is owned by longtime business associates Max Rogers and Linda Rall.
In its 50 years, Skateway has been renovated several times. In 1986, Sowers spent $25,000 on upgrades, and during the previous three years, he spent $75,000 on improvements.
Skateway, thanks to its current owners, is alive and well.
The woman behind the rink is Rall, who, like Skateway is 50 years old. The 1978 Meadowdale High School graduate calls herself “a rink rat” because she started working in a roller rink business in 1972 — when she was 12 — and she never unlaced her skates.
“Once it’s in your blood,” she said, “you can’t get it out. This is my life. I kept waiting to get a ‘real job.’ ”
This is more than a full-time job. You will almost always see Rall’s red Corvette in the parking lot, even when the rink is closed. She cleans the wooden floor, vacuums the carpet and balances the books.
“When you’re a small business,” she said, “you have to do everything.”
Rall, who is single with no children, called working around screaming kids the “perfect birth control.”
Then she smiled. “If I want to have any kids, I come here.”
There are days, hours before the rink opens, when Rall laces up her vintage black skates — “They don’t look good but they’re comfortable” — and skates alone. Just her, the music and sweat.
She’s a kid again.
“It’s fun,” she said. “I always wanted to be the first one on the rink.”
Last year, the area’s other Skateway, located in Trenton, was sold and renamed.
Rall knows she must adjust her business to keep up with the times. On Sunday, Skateway will host its first Hispanic Night to accommodate the county’s growing Hispanic population. She said an interpreter will be available and salsa music will be played.
“So many times I hear that they feel like outcasts, that they don’t feel welcome,” Rall said, adding she hopes it does go well.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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