Minutiae Shorts

The old Salvation Army on South Lamar closed down and will become The Highball: Bowling – Karaoke – Skeeball – Cocktails & Dining – Events. It's coming along faster than I thought and so far sounds like it might be a real dreamy spot. The last time I was this excited about a new venue in town was when Ocean's 11 opened on Red River. That was like the best club ever! It so good though, I wasn't always able to get in when I wanted because it was often at max capacity. It closed down all too soon for reasons unknown to me. A club that was as popular as Ocean's 11 should still be around today. It would be uber cool to have a place to go and see Mr Fabulous and bands like the Thunderchiefs on a regular basis, maybe see a Pontani Sister's sort of show and some cute burlesque. I don't know if The Highball will feature this sort of thing on a regular basis but what it does seem to offer is pretty cool. Hope it lasts!

On our way to helping my mom get something at Home Depot, we happened upon the old skating rink. Since the parking lot looked pretty empty, I thought we'd go in so I could show my mom my new roller skating moves. I had not skated in that rink since 1984 when it was still Fun-A-Rama. It has not been Fun-A-Rama since 1985 or so. It closed down for a number of years and re-opened as The Spot. They don't get many adults requesting quads, the size 7 skates and above were uber dusty. The skates needed some tuning up before they were handed over to me.

It was just a few pre-teens on roller blades and me on my ancient quads skating to the exact same music I skated to when I was last there! The DJ must have been my age. One after another, same old tunes. It would have been awesome except the floor was the same floor from 1978. It was not concrete, it was linoleum. Very old, slashed up, uneven linoleum. The rink used to look so huge and the floor was super slick, everything was brand new back then. Looking at it 27 years later, it was actually small, half the size of Playland's and was not the best looking place. So much had been changed. It just lacked a good sense of style, really.

The giant disco ball, red, shag carpet lined walls, black lights and a collection of exotic pets that lived in giant cages above the doors were all gone. My memories of the place in it's prime were all crystal clear. When Rock with You was played as i skated, everything seemed to come back. In it's prime the place was almost too sophisticated for Del Rio, teehee. Seriously, it was very, very chic.

William played Galaga forever on one quarter and I was by his side when he put in his initials. High score! I realized my mom was sitting in a booth behind us, she had driven us there. So, um, what's wrong with feeling 13 every now and then? It was actually a very welcomed hour of time travel for all of us.

Every town between Austin and Del Rio had a skating rink, and most of them looked open. That was tres cool. I had never noticed them before.