Skating Seniors

Something magical happens when you fasten a set of wheels to your feet. Tiny ball bearings begin their speedy circuits as the rollers hit wood, and suddenly, the frictions of life harmonize.

“Ooohhh, Spanish Eyyyyes ...”

As she ties the last knot on her skates, Ruthie Johnson quietly sings one of her favorite ’40s tunes piping from the speakers of an electric organ. She takes to the floor with surprising power and grace, gliding into a tempo-inspired dance that seems to defy the physics of her flight around the rink.

At once, Johnson is facing forward, arms raised above her in a ballerina pose, one foot stretched behind. A moment later, she is sitting, knee-bent, on her right skate, left leg stretched straight-ahead only inches from the floor. The sight, though impressive to anyone who isn’t an artistic roller skater, is even more remarkable since Johnson is 73 years old.

“It’s like being a teenager again,” says Johnson, who came back to skating eight years ago after raising seven children, becoming a grandmother, and losing her husband. “At this age, if you don’t use it every day, you lose it.”

We have returned to an earlier generation at the Cypress Entertainment and Skate Center in Winter Haven, Fla. (pop. 26,487). Today, the rink is filled once again with a group of golden rollers eager to take a turn on the hardwood in Monday morning’s regular session of artistic skating—a highly stylized form of the activity embraced by older adults across the country and characterized with polished, dance-like moves similar to figure skating on ice.

“You never feel as good as you do when you’re skating,” says Gloria Nellis, the skate center’s instructor. “I watched a fellow put down his cane, put on his skates, and forget for two hours he has arthritis.”

Artistic roller skaters tend to exhibit a complete commitment to this craft that becomes the focus of their retirement years. Many travel “the circuit,” visiting a string of roller rinks offering adult skate sessions on coordinated days each week. In towns from Pensacola to Ft. Myers, rinks provide the music of the World War II era either on tape or by a live organist. At least half at Cypress Skate Center have driven more than two hours for this morning’s session.

“From my house, I can get to half a dozen rinks in about an hour and 45 minutes,” says Roger Fisher, 74, who lives in Ocala and skates four days a week. “And some of us are pretty fanatical. One fellow I know has had two knee replacements. Another, who once broke his hip, has a doctor who warned him about falling again. But, hey,” he laughs, “we’re not driving all day just to visit a bar.”

With astounding fluidity, skaters as old as 83 glide to the music. Most can spin, skate backward on one foot, and jump. Couples grasp hands and begin dancing in the style of the ballroom—rolling out the rumba, the samba, the tango, and the boogie-woogie. The moves are so expressive, yet so effortless that the twosomes seem to hover over the rink, rather than on it.

Referring to artistic skaters as “young at heart” belies their fitness. To remain strong and limber, most stretch their muscles before skating, and many work out several days a week. At a time when others in their age group worry about osteoporosis or aches and pains, these seniors defy the threats of advancing years with every elegant circle they trace on the varnish.

And while some will enter competitions, others truly skate for the love of it. For them, roller-skating fills a critical emotional need at this time in their lives.

“Some of the widowers who are shy and would not go to a dance find they have the courage to come and skate,” Nellis says. “We had one gentleman, 76, I think, whose wife had passed and he wouldn’t come out of the house. We invited him to the rink and slowly got him started. Before you know it, the women started asking him to skate and he came out of his shell. He’s been dating one of those women now for years.”

Says Ruthie Johnson, “Since I started skating, I’ve had six proposals.”

Craig Eicher is a writer based in Maitland, Fla.

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