Little wheels will roll no more
Ranch Roller Rink bites the dust

By Rhonda Westfall

One more piece of the past crumbled last week.

Ranch Roller Rink disappeared from the community landscape.

No more little wheels rolling on the hardwood floor; no more throbbing music and bright lights to hypnotize skaters - another memory of youthful fun to file away.

I must confess, my trips around the roller rink were mostly limited to group outings involving either our 4-H club, Charlie's Gang, or the former "Young People's Society" from St. Peter Lutheran Church - not recent ventures in either case.

A trip to the roller rink was always fun-filled back then, as I assume it was for the intervening generations. There's something a little magical about putting on a pair of roller skates and cruising - in my case, awkwardly - around the floor.

The sensation of movement - speed not quite under control - is exhilarating, producing a feeling of freedom and abandon. Certainly, that's part of the allure that skating provides even today when old-fashioned boot-skates with little wooden wheels have given way to fancy, multi-wheeled rollerblades.

Who knows how many trips around the floor have been logged by skaters of all ages and abilities in the years since Francis Karber opened the Ranch Roller Rink Oct. 8, 1949? A picture and article in the Clinton County Republican News that preceded the opening is interesting in several respects - reflecting the changes in technology and our community over the years.

"A tape recording system as good as any in the country will provide music for skaters - the system will furnish a full hour of music without having to be touched," part of the article reads - technology that was certainly ahead of its time for the time.

Even more interesting is information that shows the growth of the community in the past 50-plus years. When it first opened, the site on the north edge of town was really close to the 'outer limits' for young people at that time.

"Owner Karber reported that he and his sons (Larry and Bill) have promised to cooperate in seeing that youngsters get back to town after the rink closes at night. 'Any youngster who doesn't have a ride to the business district after closing will be taken care of by one of the boys or myself,' Karber said."