My nephew Elijah turned four today. For his birthday we all went to Tarwheels Skating Rink in Swannanoah, NC. Tarwheels is an old rink set back off the main road next to a run down Harley Davison store. I have not set one idle foot inside a skating rink since the eighties and only then because I didn't have any choice in the matter. My dad booked a Christian rock concert to play and was counting on me to bring all of my two friends from high school to the show.

The rink was truly another world. I am not even going to try to explain how; suffice it to say, when we funneled through the carpeted walled portal, past the ticket window, we came to the Otherside and landed smack dab into 1974.
Someone out there please make a documentary about small town roller rinks so that I don't have to.