From Victorian Party Tricks To Disco To Derby: How Roller Rinks Shaped Gen X

A dark afternoon, a good cider, and one glittering memory: the roller rink. We follow that spark into a full ride through roller skating’s wild history and why it mattered so much to Gen X. From a violin-playing inventor crashing into a mirror to James Plimpton’s quad revolution, we connect the dots between Victorian spectacle, postwar neon boxes, and the utilitarian warehouses that became our weekend temples. We talk about what those rinks gave us as kids: a semi-supervised freedom loop, a ...