Writing About a Place

The skate rink is adjacent to the high school, connected by the overflow parking lot and taking up most of the northwest corner of the street, but is technically state property even though it's on school grounds. This is just a fancy way of saying both the cops and the school administration can fuck you over if you're up to shenanigans or tomfoolery. A lot of the previously alluded to fucking over occurs because the skate rink is utilized for drug use almost as much as it is for skating.

When I first approached the rink it was August of 2005 or so and the beginning of my Freshmen year in high school and coincidentally the end of my innocence but not really that's been gone awhile. 20 feet or so away I was greeted by the slapping sound of skateboard wheels and decks hitting the hot concrete as well as the sweet aroma of hydroponic marijuana, which was carried by a soft breeze in the hot August afternoon. I remember it as if I was a chubby 14 year old Bobby Hill lookalike scoping the various taggings that take up the concrete rink, alongside the various blood spots and tooth fragments from faceplants.

Visually it wasn't much but at the time I didn't really care that the place consisted mainly of concrete on top of concrete, but that probably had something to do with the dank smell that hung in the air which was putting me into a sort of uncaring mood. The rink is surrounded by a concrete ledge that rises no more than a foot off the ground and is gnarly as fuck to hit your head on. The whole thing is enclosed by a fence, with two gates for entry and a great gaping hole in the south side of the fencing, which is probably there so the cops don't have to walk all the way around the rink in order to arrest kids.