Following a fire three years ago that destroyed Skate Escape, a popular roller rink in Laconia, co-owner Janine Page told the sad truth.
“It’s a family place,” Page said on Sept. 22, 2013, according to WMUR. “I know the kids are going to be pretty devastated.”
The rink was never rebuilt, but these days kids are smiling, as are lots of adults, energized by Everett Arena’s summer program. It began June 10, with skating held Friday and Sunday nights through July 31.
Everett Arena, the Taj Mahal of hockey here and in much of the state, has hosted everything from hockey to cat shows, but this is its first foray into roller skating since opening 51 years ago.
On opening night, with “Shake Your Booty” blasting from the speakers, the lights down low and a disco ball sparkling high above, about 30 people representing a wide variety of ages and skill levels made the four turns around Everett’s oval.
Some, like 14-year-old Cassidy Dion of Northfield, zipped around the course like she’d been born on wheels.
“Since I was six,” said Dion, when asked the question she hears all the time, the one about how long she’s been roller skating.
“I feel 100 percent comfortable,” she added.
Then she showed just how comfortable down the back straightaway, where she split her legs outward, a mere 3 inches from the floor, and clutched her calves, resembling a sleek jet glider soaring overhead.
Finally, Dion, who grew up skating at Skate Escape before it was taken away from her, was back doing what she loved.
“Oh my God, I was so excited when I heard about this,” Dion said. “There are no skate rinks around where we live anymore. I skate outside around my house, and I used to go to Enfield every once in a while, but it’s a long ride.”
The Dion family is to roller skating what the Bonner family is to basketball and the Mounsey family is to hockey around here.
All four Dions – Cassidy, her 20-year-old brother, Keith Bowman, and their parents, Julie and Chuck Dion – have been skating as a family for years. Chuck, 46, grew up on a farm in Northfield. He skated at rinks in Gilford and Franklin, saying, “It’s all we had to do. I loved it.”
That love, plus a healthy dose of toughness gained from farm life, has been passed down to his children. Cassidy has suffered multiple concussions, a broken nose and a tooth cutting through her lip, all in her search for skating greatness.
“She has a dad who would say, ‘Suck it up, buttercup,’ ” Chuck said. “And she likes to show off.”
“It’s been worth it,” Cassidy said.
Bowman, 20, glided at Everett alongside his sister. He, too, has suffered pain while learning, things like bruised ribs, cuts and bruises. And he, too, is thrilled he can skate closer to home after Skate Escape burned down.
“We’d go Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and it was so much fun,” Bowman said. “I met my girlfriend there, and we’ve been together five years. We never had a place to go after (Laconia) and now we do. This place would be busy year-round if it stayed open all the time.”
It’s a summer thing for now, a program in which speed skaters like the Dions can become a blur, thankful they have a place to go, if even for just a short while.
It was the same story for 37-year-old Eli Luicha of Andover, who brought his family to Everett to recapture something he had had as a kid in Manchester.
“As a teenager we went to Good Times in Merrimack all the time,” Luicha said. “There hasn’t been a place around. I have not skated in 10 years, but this is awesome. It came right back to me.”
His 7-year-old daughter Lilly Luicha learned on the sidewalk outside her mother’s house and held her own at Everett, never needing the side boards for help.
“I didn’t fall,” Lilly said after a few laps around the rink.
Coincidentally, Lilly was taught by someone who just happened to be at Everett the same time she was.
“We used to be neighbors in Northfield,” Cassidy Dion said. “She had skates, and she was always outside trying, so I figured I’d go out and teach her.”
Diana Abarca of Warner used to skate in Walpole, Mass. “Every Saturday with all my besties,” Abarca said. “Just the best time ever. We’d look forward to it all week, and I was so excited when I heard about this.”
A nonskater these days, Abarca brought her two daughters, Ava, 12, and Celeste, 9. It didn’t matter that the girls hugged the side boards and pulled themselves around the oval. They’re learning, and they’ll be back.
“They wanted to come,” Abarca said. “They didn’t quite know what it was at first, but as soon as they walked in and saw the lights, they loved it.”