Living in our skates

You know I really do my best when it comes to remembering all this stuff.
But thanks to a lot of you natives out there "the truth can be told" as they say. In my story about Shawn Gorman climbing the chimney of PS 130, which I must have spelled the word "chimney" twelve different ways. James mentioned that Shawn was actually wearing his skates when he climbed the dam thing. And you know what, I think James is right. Because if Shawn did it in his sneakers that would have been too easy. And besides, the Gormans would have skated there from Church Avenue without any shoes.

So James, I tip my hat to you.
Here is James’s comment:

My name is James,
and I was there that Sunday morning when Shawn climbed the side of P.S. 130. What you failed to mention, or notice, was that Shawn actually had his roller skates on at the time. I remember seeing him use the rubber toe stoppers (remember them?), fitting them inside the groove of each step. To prove that I was there, and knew this kid, I can share this one important piece of information:
He's always fancied himself a monkey.
He even used to claim that he owned a monkey.

Thank you James
(But I still can’t remember anything about the monkey)

And as for “Living in our skates”, I was as guilty as the next guy.

• I always used to climb down the three flights of stairs in
my house with skates and full goalie equipment on.
Oh, and then up them too. It used to drive my Grandfather crazy.

• I used to drive with my roller skates on and later roller blades,
(please don’t tell GEICO).

• I used to wear my roller blades after work in the elevator of
9 West 57 before I would skate home to Brooklyn on a Friday
night with Tommy Brennan.

• I used to wear them in the bank, post office, Foodtown, etc, etc.

• Sometimes I still put them on in the F-Train, walk up the
subway steps and skate home from the station.

So you see, the image of Shawn Gorman climbing a chimney with skates on now makes perfect sense.

And as far as driving with my skates on?
Well, I quit that bad habit years ago, so please don’t worry.

Ron Lopez


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