BARLOWS SKATING RINK
Barlow Kids In The Late 50s
Believe it or not, Barlows starts here..... ( Bet you didnt know there once was a huge ice skating rink in Kanawha City )
The
idea that they thought an ice rink would fly in 1937 is very
interesting. They must have done a fairly good business that first
year however because one year later, they added 50 feet to the length
of the rink. They assumed that they would be hosting semi professional
Hockey. Another interesting thing is that it appears the rink was only
open in the winter, even though they had their own ice making
equipment. This rink was located on 35th Street and Virginia Ave.
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And this is where Barlows comes in...... After just a few years, the ice rink failed. Another wouldnt be built until the mid 50s when Mr Lynn built his at the Middleburg Auditorium, after opening it first as a roller rink. (That ice rink failed also.) So now we have a big empty building, and that's where Dick and Margaret Barlow come in....
The year is now 1942, and Barlows opens in the old "Ice Sports Inc" location.
In
the late 40s Barlows moved to the West Side.
It was there that
people of my generation remembers them. ( I wouldnt skate there
until around 1961 however). Barlows still ran ads with the
heading "Barlows Roller Rink", and that's what me and everyone I know
called it until the day they closed. But they had a new sign out
front and now new ads that said "Skateland", and many people only
know it by that name.
I
loved Barlows for many reasons, but especially because they had a
concrete floor that allowed you to stick to it like glue, unlike the
wooden floors that were more slippery. They used to throw
tickets on the floor and when the music stopped, you dived for them.
These would usually get you in free.
Barlows
did very well for 20 years in that location. They at one time
held dance parties on Saturday nights after skating was over. Margaret
Barlow was quite a character in
her day. She was a pretty petite blonde that carried a pistol,
and brought more than one person to justice when they would attempt to
break into the rink or steal parts off her car. She was also a
really good organ player. Margaret and
Dick would go on to divorce and she remarried a short term city fireman
named Tucker. They would move to Florida in the late 60s when she
refused to allow Blacks into the rink. It was torn down and
nothing but the memories remain.
POST SCRIPT
So what happened to all the roller skating rinks? - Selling land is more profitable than running a rink
- Insurance and lawsuits are expensive (the main reason Rock Lake closed)
- roller skating is no longer in style
Did
you notice that many cities (including Charleston and South Charleston)
have supported ice skating over the years but not roller skating?
Why do you suppose that is? My opinion: Roller-skating does not
carry the same societal
value as ice-skating. Put another way, the powers that be, and their
prime
constituency, do not perceive roller-skating to be in the same class as
ice-skating. And that's what this may be about in the end.... class.
Personally, I dont believe that government should be involved in
these kinds of activities period. But if they insist on doing it,
I just think it's interesting they always choose Ice Skating over
Roller Skating, as neither is self sustaining.
Newspaper articles courtesy of The Charleston Gazette and The Daily Mail
Black & While photos courtesy of Joyce Hughes Watson |
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