Sunthing Special

Brief history on my inline skating background: In the early ’90s when inline skating started to get popular here (Midwest) I thought it looked like a blast. My ex-husband told me I was a clutz and would end up killing myself so I shouldn’t even try it. Shortly after our divorce, one of my first purchases was a pair of inline skates. I taught myself to skate in parking lots until the security guards would kick me out. Hills scared me, so I would seek out every flat place I could go. I didn’t go often since there aren’t any long flat paved trails in the Akron area, so I would travel to different cities (Mansfield, Cincinnati, Erie, Cleveland) several times each summer to get my fix. My husband likes to go too, so it became a really fun thing for us to do together when we were dating. Since the kids, we only go once or twice a summer now (if that), and even then we usually only go up to the Towpath in Independence. I remember the first time I told the babysitter my husband and I were going inline skating for our “date.” Her 20-something jaw dropped. She actually had never even done it herself, so she was shocked that that was something we (at our advanced age) would do. By now she knows we’re not quite the usual couple, so on Sunday when I told the (same) sitter we were going to go to Oberlin to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright house and then go inline skating she didn’t even blink. The thing is, I am older. I don’t go often so for the first 10 minutes I look and feel really unsteady and it takes me a while to get back in the rhythm. And I used to be afraid that if I fell on loose gravel or whatever, I’d sprain my wrist. Now I worry I’ll break a hip. I also think, “Do I look incredibly stupid doing this?” to the joggers passing me. The thing is, it is fun (and great exercise!). Fortunately our kids are too young to be embarrassed by us. So I guess we have a few more years to go …