Roller Derby Is Back....

Sitting in the library this morning, reading a 4 day old paper and found that Roller Derby is making a comeback!! YAY! YIPPIE! YAHOOOO!!!!! It would be an understatement to say I really dig, Roller Derby..

When I was a youngspunckster, one of the highlights of my year was when the Roller Derby would come and skate at our town fair. Our team was out of San Francisco and they were called, "The Bay Area Bombers.." The men's team captain was a cat named, Charley O'Connell.. Tougher than tough, bad boy of the boards... Sharing the spot-light with an equal tough chick, ladies captain by the name of, Joanne Weston. When they would come to town it seemed they were always skating against the dreaded, LA Thunderbirds... (they would poke and gouge and abuse at random as soon as the ref was looking the other way. Man it was pandemonium, at times. Charley-O would take off his helmet and crack some bird in the head and the fight was on.... Or, there was always an open spot in the rail for the skaters to enter onto or off of the track and the Thunderbirds were notorious for forcing another teams player, through this gap usually at top speed.. In the stands the popcorn would fly as we all would jump to our feet, screaming, "Open your goddamn eyes Ref!"

Everybody would stomp their feet in unison as an audible way for our beloved Bombers to hear our love and support.

Even to this day, (42 years later) I can picture the roller rink, set up in the middle of the stock yard... hard as sin, wooden bleachers. Summer sun beating down, the smell of cotton candy and corn dogs, (and manure) wafting in the air... Drinking Coca-Cola in wax paper Dixie cups, white paper cups with a row or red hearts around the rim, (would always leave flakes of wax floating in the coke.) You could hear the screams from the girlies getting their world rocked on the, Hammer, (the operators would always stop you upside down and shake the shit out of you, trying to get the change in your pockets to fall down to the ground, (some kind of a tip I suppose.) One time my dad had a pretty good heat on and rode the hammer.. The operator, lost his mind and stranded dad upside down.. making a little sport of the, "drunk" he had on high. Shook the hell out of the car trying to dislodge my fathers stomach, he didn't... but he wasn't prepared for the ass whipping he received when the old man touched down.. A right, then left and a, "I'm very sorry sir... I won't ever do that again," from the guy and then off to the arena for..... "ROLLER DERBY!!!!!!!!!!"

Fuck, I really miss those by gone days. I guess this is what being an old guy is all about. Full of a bunch of, remember when's.

Now this morning, much to my delight I find Roller Derby is making a comeback. Look in my sidebar, down by the clock to find the link.

YIPPIE!!!