Never Met a Stranger

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how rollerbladers generally form an instant bond.  If you move to a new town, encourage your rollerblader to go skating, chances are when he comes home you already have a new group of friends.  Fort Myers, Florida was a perfect example.  We knew people from our work but my rollerblader went to the skate park and we had a huge, amazing group of friends.  He went skating with them during the day and unfortunately had to work at night so I went out partying with them. 

It's also amazing to me that you can post something on be-mag to the effect that you're going to be in town, looking for people to skate with, just want to meet some good people, and those that would normally be strangers to you open up their home and let you in.  I know I've been a part of that phenomenon.  It's as if the one fundamental similarity of sharing in the rollerblading culture makes you a friend.

I am always also amazed at the diversity within the population... ages, races, religions, education levels, backgrounds... people with seemingly nothing in common, no thread to hold them together, but all are bound together with the rollerblading culture.  Make no mistakes about it, it's not just a hobby, something active for them to do, an obession... it truly is a culture. 

I remember standing on our balcony and saying we look like a Benetton add.  If you're younger this means nothing to you.  If you remember those commercials their marketing was based on "the united colors"  The commercials were for a clothing store but they had people from every color under the sun represented and they would stand together, hold hands, or some other type of We Are The World stuff.  At that moment in time, without ever realizing it until that moment, I was standing with all of our friends - An Asian (student), African America (Business Major), Colombian (Military), Caucasian (Medical Doctor), Hispanic (Service Industry), Puerto Rican (Customer Service Support),  Czech Republic (Artist) and thought, "If it wasn't for rollerblading, I wouldn't know these people"