Roller Skating in the 50s

By Jo Ann Wagner

I remember thinking my new pair of roller skates were pretty great when I was young. They weren’t shoe skates, but “one size fits most” skates. I sat on the front porch step to put the skates on, so that I could start down the sidewalk when I finished.

On top of the wheels each skate had two metal pieces that slid together to make the skate longer or shorter. I had to put my shoe in that space and adjust it to fit. Then I took the skate off and used a key to tighten the nut to the bolt on the bottom of the skate. Next, there were two small pieces of metal that attached to the bottom of the skate and curved up around the toes. The one for the big toe area was larger than the one that clamped around the little toes. These pieces were adjusted so that my shoe fit into the big toe clamp first, then the little toe. I tightened each side of the toe pieces with a different part of the key than I’d used to tighten the nut on the bottom.

A leather strap went through holes in the metal at the back of the skates and fastened like a belt around my ankle. With one skate on, I did the same thing a second time with the other skate. I tied the key to a string, put it around my neck, and took off.

Our sidewalks weren’t particularly smooth. The one in front of our house was raised in one place from tree roots. We only had sidewalks in front of our house and to the nearest street. When I got to the street, I had to walk across the gravel on my skates to get to the other side. Once on the other side, I had an entire block of sidewalk to skate on because that was where the school was located. Trees lined the sidewalk, and there were often twigs and/or branches blocking my way. When it’s all you know, it’s good.