Good SkatesVisiting the Holiday Skating Center in...

Good Skates

Visiting the Holiday Skating Center in Lancaster on a Saturday afternoon is like looking at America in a time warp.

There is a musky smell of exertion that pervades the cavernous facility, along with the sound of the thunka thunka music that has driven roller skaters for generations.

But what really hits home to a casual visitor is that this could be the set of a movie from the Age of Innocence, as we tend to remember the ‘50s, or the ‘50s we think we remember from television.

Kids arrive with their parents and then scramble off to be with their friends. Parents watch, with small smiles of pride and remembrance, as their tots roll across the wooden floor.

Some parents, not much older than kids themselves, take to the floor on skates as well, gliding cautiously while adopting a casual air of confidence.

It looks as if everyone here is a product of an unbroken home, Boy or Girl Scouting and a neighborhood place of worship.

Bob Cody, a local real estate agent who has come with his wife and daughter, smiles at that idea. “Well, of course in this day and age that probably isn’t true,” he says, looking out over the multigenerational group on wheels, going around in circles.

But it is true, he says, that the skating rink is something of an institution in these parts.

“I think most people live out here because they value, among other things, a close family situation, and this is something everyone can do together,” Cody says.

He adds that in the past year the area’s population has almost doubled, so it’s also a place for families to get to know their neighbors.

The rink offers programs for tiny tots and their parents Sunday mornings, for school kids from 3 to 5 Wednesday afternoons, and families Wednesday evenings. There are lots of other programs for various age groups, as well as open skating on weekends.

“Every first Monday of the month is Christian Skate, with a Christian disc jockey spinning the tunes, and we will have a whole day of skating, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Jan. 21, which is a school holiday in honor of Martin Luther King,” said Cindy Blevins, rink manager.

Blevins agrees that both parents and kids like the place because it is a healthy, safe environment, and she adds that some on Saturdays 3,000 to 4,000 people attend the day and evening sessions.

Jock in the Box

KGMX, “K-Mix” (106.3-FM) has put its disc jockeys in a glassed-in booth in the Antelope Valley Mall looking out on the food hall.

From that vantage point, the DJs can watch the passing parade as they spin easy-listening rock for their listening audience, which stretches geographically from Acton to Bakersfield, and at least some of their audience can watch them.

“It’s really a trip,” said DJ Eddie Cruise, who works the booth weekends from 2 to 6 p.m., “and we hope that being so accessible to the people will remind them to tune in.”

This easy access is the idea of Jeff Ryan, program director for the station that is owned by Avalon Productions, which is mainly a concert producer.

“Avalon really believes in promoting the product,” Cruise said, “so, here I am.”

Before landing in the glass booth, Cruise worked as a disc jockey in New York, Arizona and New Mexico, and is hoping someday to cruise right into the Los Angeles market.

For the time being, however, he said he is having a ball watching the people watch him in Palmdale.

“The most fun is watching the kids come up to see what I’m doing with all the equipment in here, but the traffic in attractive young women isn’t bad either,” he said.

“The funniest experience I had was when two women made a sign that said, ‘Take off your clothes,’ and paraded around for a couple of days.”

He didn’t, but he said everyone in the food hall thought it was pretty funny too.

High Spirits

All kind of professional associations put out publications, so it should come as no surprise that the California Astrological Assn. in North Hollywood has a newspaper, and a spirited one it is, too.

One story in the most recent issue talks about a Wisconsin woman with carolinensis, a condition that makes her take on the coloration of her surroundings, like a chameleon, and another story that tells how a local astrologer flies to Tokyo once a month to give a major business executive financial projections.

But the ads are what this paper is all about, like the one for Andreika the witch.

Her ad says: “I will cast a spell for you! Listen to what I say! Do what I tell you! I exist in the third dimension. I can vanish from the present and appear beside someone without them knowing it.” She goes on to say she can change the course of destiny.

Another ad is for the Krakow spell. It says, “I am a Warlock!” and adds, “My life does not conform to normal human standards. I do not eat as you. I do not sleep as you. I do not let others affect my life or control me. When I cast your spell, the die is cast. It is not a question of ‘if’ the spell will come true, but ‘when’ the spell will take effect.”

It doesn’t say what happens when one guy puts his witch up against another guy’s warlock, but had we but known, we might have saved a lot of money on national defense. These people only charge $15.50 per curse.

Killer Game

The new rage at British Accent, an import gift and food shop in Sherman Oaks, is murder mystery jigsaw puzzles.

“We have this whole line of puzzles,” said shop owner Carole Fisher. “They have printed materials that tell a story but don’t reveal the solution to the crime. You have to do the puzzle to figure out that.”

She said there are eight puzzles, the best selling being “Death by Diet,” and they are on reorder all the time. “One customer will come in and get one and the next thing you know his or her friends are coming in for them.” Fisher said the puzzles are as addictive as Twining’s Earl Grey tea, which she also sells.

She said the puzzles were a big seller at Christmastime because they are such a fun item and only cost about $18, but she doesn’t know how many people actually got them as gifts.

“I suspect that at least some of the people who bought them for presents kept them themselves,” she said.

Overheard

“She doesn’t seem real clear on a lot of concepts. Like she thinks the emergency telephones on the freeway are for when you go into midlife crisis while you’re driving.”

--At Le Cafe in Sherman Oaks