As we roll ever closer to our anniversary (pun intended), I decided to talk about the young Sylvia and Jeff. This is the kind of thing they will put in the movie they make out of my blog. Brooke Shields would have played Sylvia, Marc Price would play me. Before you say, "Who?" To which I say, "exactly my point." Let me tell you that he was the dorky kid who played Alex Keaton's friend "Skippy"on Family Ties. Except his glasses weren't coke bottles and he wasn't overweight.
It was rare that either one of us would not go skating on the weekend. A birthday, a recital, something going on at church (for me, Sylvia didn't go yet), or a family outing might keep us away. It was always Roller World and anything that kept us from it would be met with resistance and a little grumbling...or a lot of grumbling. I mean, there wasn't much that I would tolerate that would keep me away from teen "romance" especially when the lights went down and they announced "couples skate." Holding hands? Me? I was just a dorky kid. I mean really dorky! I couldn't believe that anyone was willing to hold my hand while we skated around the rink...but it happened!
Now Sylvia and I were not "together together." She had her friends, I had my friends, our parents dropped us off separately, but it was still a lot of fun. We would do our own things. I really liked speed skating. Being able to figure out how to go fast enough to be fun but still not get kicked out for being too dangerous was my thing. Sylvia skated backwards and was way more comfortable at it than me. I could do it but it wasn't my thing. And even though "shooting the duck" wasn't my thing either, I could do it. If you don't know, that was where you skate, bend down on one leg, and hold the other leg in front of you like a rifle. Thus the shooting part. If you did it the best, fastest, farthest, least wobbly, you won a free Coke from the snack bar. I never won but in my mind I looked cool being able to do that trick...and then I went and bought a Coke anyway.
It was a time before there were a lot of fights and gangs and we were there minus our parents. To keep everyone safe Roller World had a "no return" policy. If you went outside, you stayed outside. We would call home when we were ready to be picked up and lucky for us our parents were close. In fact, if you measured it, I think Roller World was the exact mid point between our two houses.
Before I met Sylvia I never couple skated with anyone. I keep trying to explain to you that I was (am) a dork! Did I mention that I was overweight with crazy thick glasses? Ok, honesty time, before I actually met Sylvia there was one time...a cute girl came up to me and said, "Want to couple skate?" (I never would have asked anyone) I managed to squeak out, "sure." And when we got out there to skate she grabbed both my hands and started to skate backward. She didn't want to stop skating and wanted to practice going backward. I guess I looked safe enough. I was thrilled! (and my friends were amazed) And Sylvia, well Sylvia, she didn't really have an opinion, you see...even though we were at Roller World, together, every weekend for most of two years, we never actually met.
In my mind, I know she is the cute girl who asked me to couple skate.
(How we really met? Still to come!)
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