my hang out place was  at the skating rink every friday and saturday night. what  was yours?

early 80s:the roller rink   :)

mid 80s:the mall  :D

late 80s:dance bars    8)

living in a small town didn't offer much. mostly the movie theatre or school events. i spent the 80s in the town Footloose was based on. or at least one of the towns.

During the 80s, my hangout place would have been my place of my employment.

The local Arcade parlour which was shut down in about 1997 or 98 because the owner was dealing drugs from there.  :o They kept all the really classic & older cames from the late 70s & early 80s, but still had a lot of the newer games from the late 80s like Golden Axe, Double Dragon, Vigelante etc.
What's happened to arcade games? I walked into a parlour the other day & all they've got is crap like Dance Dance Revolution & other really stupid stuff. . That's not an arcade game, that's just a way to take money from kids & make them look stupid in the process. Why pay money to dance it costs nothing. I was diappointed & revolted by what i saw. Not one place has the classics.  >:(

Early 80's....a roller skating rink and my best buf of the time, at his house where we'd play hours upon hours of Atari.

Mid 80's....being a roadie for my friend's band which meant I got into the rock clubs but still couldn't drink, dangit!

Late 80's...the record store where I worked...Friday nights was heavy metal heaven...from 4.30 PM on or so, the place was PACKED with head bangers. Also a local rock club that was our second home...sad to see it's a parking lot now  :\'(

early 80s:the roller rink  :)

mid 80s:the mall  :D

late 80s:dance bars    8)


Cool! :) That actually sounds pretty accurate as a snapshot for each part of the decade.

Roller Rinks were kind of a leftover of the 70's, so from what I know, people were still going there frequently in like 1981/82.

I love malls. On one hand, they started in the 70's, on the other, they were still a huge part of late 80's pop culture (think Tiffany!) - even as late as 1995/96 teens still hung out there on a regular basis. However I think like 1982-87 was the heart of the "mall" years. Just everything about it - arcades, the Madonna Wannabes, the Fast Times at Ridgemont High-type crowd, etc. ;)

I'm the least familiar with dance clubs, but that almost seemed a precursor to the 90's - also alot of "dance club" type music was on the charts in the late 80s - for instance Lisa Lisa & the Cult Jam. That would continue into the 90's, albeit in updated form.

PS: Sorry I accidentally turned this into another nitpick post. ;D

There's some new movie coming out, title escapes me at the moment, that they're on roller skates, not blades. Made me wonder if that's going to cause  another resurgence of roller skating and there's very few, if any, rinks left anymore.

There's some new movie coming out, title escapes me at the moment, that they're on roller skates, not blades. Made me wonder if that's going to cause  another resurgence of roller skating and there's very few, if any, rinks left anymore.


you're tellin' me!!! :\'( ;D

Early 80s - skating rink

Mid 80s - the Mall

Late 80s - Parties and punk rock shows.

Coffee shop.  Grew up in a small town with not much else to do unless you did drugs.  Couldn't afford them so we went to coffee alot.

mall, skating rink, bowling alley, friend's houses.



Erin :)

I was 10 years old in 89 to give you guys an idea on how old I was in the 80's but in pre-school we always used to take this trip to the roller-skating rink. It was in Iselin(a section of Woodbridge, New Jersey.) I hung out at the shore a couple of times in 88 I think. Other than that every summer a group of people used to all gather around the street and bike ride or play baseball mostly in the mid to late 80's.

I have a question for the 80's people that are on these boards. were skating rinks really popular in the early to mid 80's? I was so young then. I always wonder if that skating rink in Iselin is still there. I doubt it its probably some store or mall or something. I was off of RT. 27 by the Garden State Parkway(Exit 131) if anybody knows where I am talking about if anybody here lives in Jersey.

I have a question for the 80's people that are on these boards. were skating rinks really popular in the early to mid 80's? I was so young then.

I dunno about in Jersey, I'd suspect so, but here in Boston they were very popular. In the early 80's there were 5 or 6 in the area. By the mid 80's there were only 2 left. I was still going in 1986 when the place shut down and had become several different entertainment venues...it's now an adult arcade. Looks really nice.

I also recall going to a rink in Connecticut in the early 80's with my cousins. They lived in E. Hartford but for some reason I think we went into Hartford to skate.

you're tellin' me!!! :\'( ;D


We're up the creek without a paddle if that happens. It's been WAY too long since a movie came out to light the spark again and there's no places left. I'd like to go back to it, I could use the exercise. Still have my custom skates in the attic that I never get to use anymore.  >:(

I dunno about in Jersey, I'd suspect so, but here in Boston they were very popular. In the early 80's there were 5 or 6 in the area. By the mid 80's there were only 2 left. I was still going in 1986 when the place shut down and had become several different entertainment venues...it's now an adult arcade. Looks really nice.

At least they made it an arcade. There is no arcades nearby me even in Jersey! At least none that I know of. Unless you go to the shore. 83-86 were like my pre-school years when I was to going to that particular skating rink in Jersey.

We're up the creek without a paddle if that happens. It's been WAY too long since a movie came out to light the spark again and there's no places left. I'd like to go back to it, I could use the exercise. Still have my custom skates in the attic that I never get to use anymore.  >:(


i went while away on a girls' weekend a few years ago..it was AWESOME!!! 8)

At least they made it an arcade. There is no arcades nearby me even in Jersey! At least none that I know of. Unless you go to the shore. 83-86 were like my pre-school years when I was to going to that particular skating rink in Jersey.


The last year the rink was open they stopped refinishing the floor. Used to be awesome when we'd pile in on a night that they had just waxed it. You'd go flying. They used to also host under 18 dance parties on Saturday nights and the last year of that, they did not enforce the no high heels rule so the girls ruined the floor with the spikes-not that I'm complaining...loved girls in stilettos.  The floor is still there but they have pool tables on it now so it's beyond hope if they ever wanted to re-open as a roller rink. Not sure anybody would invest the money into the floor for a short lived fad.

I have friends in Northern Jersey-I'll have to ask if they know of any.

i went while away on a girls' weekend a few years ago..it was AWESOME!!! 8)


I bet it was. I used to love hanging out at the rink, was a lot of fun. Not sure I could still do jumps but it'd be fun trying ;)

I was 10 years old in 89 to give you guys an idea on how old I was in the 80's but in pre-school we always used to take this trip to the roller-skating rink. It was in Iselin(a section of Woodbridge, New Jersey.) I hung out at the shore a couple of times in 88 I think. Other than that every summer a group of people used to all gather around the street and bike ride or play baseball mostly in the mid to late 80's.

I have a question for the 80's people that are on these boards. were skating rinks really popular in the early to mid 80's? I was so young then. I always wonder if that skating rink in Iselin is still there. I doubt it its probably some store or mall or something. I was off of RT. 27 by the Garden State Parkway(Exit 131) if anybody knows where I am talking about if anybody here lives in Jersey.


Yes, TV, we had rinks where I was growing up. Roller skating was really popular in our area (Northern California). We had one rink called Roller Haven and it's still open! My brother and I were in competitive skating so we roller skated A LOT! Being in competitions sort of took the joy out of it, yet I still have SO many memories being there so many hours practicing or just having fun! We use to play games on the rink such as a dice game. They had this huge dice they'd roll on the rink and they had numbers on each side of the rink. People who stood under the right number would win a free skate on the rink and something else. We also did Simon Says and the Hokey Pokey thing. The Hokey Pokey thing was fun.

When I was in junior high, (86-89), my best friend and I used to always go to the roller skating rink in our area.

What amazes me though is that the music played was different depending on what state you were in. At the time, I was living in Orlando, Florida and all they played at our rink was '80s pop. I moved back to my native Cleveland, Ohio for high school and re-united with a friend from my elementary school days and he too had spent most of Jr. High in the rink up here. Turns out when he attended the rink, all they played was hair metal stuff.

By the by, in my junior year of high school, (1992/93-ish), some friends of mine and I decided to go to the rink since none of us had been there in years. We thought it would be a great way to re-live those great times we had back in the day. Well, when we got there, there was a crowd of 100 or so Jr. High-aged kids, (most of who were wiggers, as was hip at the time), and about 5 police crusiers with lights flashing. We didn't even bother to try to find out what happened. Fight? Drug bust? Who cares. It automatically reminded us that - #1: you can never go home again and #2: kids today just aren't the same as we were when we were at that age.

We were all instantly bummed out and just went home. A few short years later, the place was closed. A few years after that, it was leveled.

When I was in junior high, (86-89), my best friend and I used to always go to the roller skating rink in our area.

.........We were all instantly bummed out and just went home. A few short years later, the place was closed. A few years after that, it was leveled.




Yeah, it's pretty sad that these things change and disappear all together. I tried going back to our rink and skating professionally and it wasn't the same. The crowd was different, the music, the atmosphere.. and it was only a year or two since I had left (around 1992). I was glad I left when I did, as I felt like I had left at the right time - when everything was still in it's prime. Maybe now, with the resurgence of interest in roller skating some old ones still hanging in there and regain that same magic... although, it would be highly unlikely..

mid to late 80's -  pubs and the Marquee Club in London

the 80s we would cruise and meet up at the white bridge or down my the river. Those were the days.....

mid to late 80's -  pubs and the Marquee Club in London



Did you ever see Marillion play the Marquee then?