A Visit to the National Museum of Roller Skating

I've always had a passionate hatred for roller skating. Maybe it's because my ankles always hurt after a bout of skating, or maybe it's because I just really suck at it, I don’t know. Regardless, for reasons out of my control, I was sitting at the international museum of roller skating this last Thursday. I was staring at 190 years of the most boring history imaginable, that is, other than the history of spoons as a musical instrument. But I’ll suck up the bitterness and try to tell you about my monotonously educational roller skating experience.
Our lovely local skating museum (also some kind of competitive skating office or something of that sort…) is full of surprises. The first exhibit one sees when he walks in is a shelf filled with the most eccentric rolling contraptions I’ve ever seen. I’ve found some online examples that you can find here. In my opinion, most look like spoons tied to wooden balls by leather straps. But I guess, according to the exhibitions at the museum, they were quite the fashion item in their day. Social skating was up there in the glamorous categories of operas and ball room dancing. Personally, I have no idea why, but old people will be old people.
The museum also had a large collection of skating history. The walls were covered in posters of skating legends, and I do use that word loosely… Trophy cases were overfilled with golden mementos of tournaments won. The trophies and posters are from local, state, regional, national, and even international events. I never knew that this activity had such a following.
The competitive events that are based on roller skating are similar to several winter sports such as ice skating and skiing. There are competitions in figure skating, speed skating, off road skating, and several more which I don‘t care to mention here. However, if you would wish to find out more, you can visit the National Museum of Roller Skating. Not feeling ambitious but still yearn for more skating knowledge? Check out this link to Encarta for more skating information.