Читать книгу Plato and Potato Chips - June Inc. Luvisi - Страница 14

Posted on August 23, 2010 by June

Roller skates. Wheels of steel that served as my magic carpet to bliss and adventure. As a little girl living in an apartment building, they were my passports to the surrounding world. Mother was busy with being owner, manager, decorator, and sometime janitor in our 19 apartment building.

The building was a ticket out of the poverty of the depression for my family. Mom was iron willed that the building would not fall into foreclosure. So that left me with quite a lot of time on my own. And even when friends could not come out to play, I had my roller skates. How I looked forward to tightening the shoe clamps (the adjustable metal clamps attached to the skates), buckling the well-worn leather straps and falling into a rhythm that propelled me along the cement sidewalks.

Ah yes, the cement sidewalk. Both my nemesis and friend. I’d look forward to the patches of smooth, even blocks where I could glide along with pleasure, and braced myself for the old cobbled ones that challenged my balance. Oh yes, roller-skating on cement could be blood sport! And even after all these years, my knees have remnants of the scars to prove it.