Story Submitted by JOY KELLER, Owner of HOUSE OF SKATIN’ LLC

Before I tell you all the things, I want to give you a bit of my history that led me to this crazy thing called roller skating. Living in the northern mid-west, of course, begins not with the roller skate but the ice skate. If you had space outside, a hose, a well to hook it up to… you had a ice rink! Or better yet, any body of water was subject to the creation of one. I was put in ice skates probably before I was out of diapers. Not to date myself, but I have some super 8’s of myself teaching myself to jump, spin, and of course fall……ALOT! It was there that I created my favorite feeling of being carefree, floating with no particular place to be, and the wisdom to know you could be one stride to falling and dying(drama much?)!

My love of roller skating grew when my parents would venture to the city with a roller rink for birthdays, family events, church events, and whatever brought us there. I remember a lot of people around, music, lights, and amazing skaters all over the floor going in the same direction having fun. This was the most exciting thing in my young life to witness. From there I was hooked with no way back! Spent my childhood, teenage years, and young adulthood roller skating wherever I could go until the skating rink closed. After that… work, kids, adult responsibilities… you know, that old chestnut. There was little time to journey to find a skating rink. Roller skating seemed to not be that popular in the area I was living at that time. Unfortunately, roller skating took a backseat to all of the other things in my life.

BUT… There was a spark that once again ignited in my life of roller skating! ROLLER DERBY was reborn from the ashes! I joined a roller derby league and spent over a decade hitting, skating, traveling, meeting some amazing individuals, and creating a crazy and wild family along with it. This also recreated that feeling of love for roller skating and I was addicted all over again. While I was on that journey, I assumed that EVERYONE wanted to be a roller derby girl. I really do still think that, but that wasn’t the reality.

I did, though, know that roller skating was getting its well deserved resurgence everywhere in the world. Aside from the pandemic period of time(which actually created an online following of the masses), skating was back! My husband and I were in discussion of what we could do taxwise to lose money after we lost our dependents. I also wanted a way to bring roller derby back into the city. I figured that this little city of mine needed a roller skating rink ASAP! I spent hours thinking about how this could be done. Finally I activated “Plan: Pull the Trigger on That Skate Dream!” and came up with the idea that if I can’t have a building… I would make the skatium mobile, “food truck style”! House of Skatin’ LLC was born in February with a pop-up style roller skating rink events. Talk about a mid-life crisis! I did my research. I located who had rental skates to buy(used or new), compared types, prices, quality, and my experience of skating on different types. I found them, bought them, purchased my trailer to conduct my mobile skate business, and drove south to pick them both up. A crazy “turn and burn” couple of days and I was back up north setting my plan of attack.

Now I spend a handful of my weekends at my roller skating events daydreaming of a perfect roller skate land full of maple wood floors, disco balls, lights, DJ’s, and a culture and community full of skaters everywhere!