Skate park brings memories and musical connections

In the mid-1990s, somewhere amongst the north-Atlantan suburban no man’s land between Woodstock and Kennesaw, there sat a little nondescript skate shop, directly between a laundromat and a Chinese restaurant.

It had hardly any stock — a few boards, a worn-looking hoodie or two, used wheels and trucks on beaten-up display fixtures spread haphazardly around a stained carpet. But out back, there was a skate park of sorts. A scattering of steel pipes were threaded through cinder blocks and a crudely built halfpipe was the prized centerpiece.

After unsuccessfully trying to drop in a few times, I realized that my tailbone wasn’t going to support a skating habit, but I still hung around for something else the store offered. On weekend nights, the owner pushed the paltry offerings of merchandise into a back closet to clear the floor for punk and hardcore shows. There wasn’t a stage, and there was hardly a sound system. It was just an ugly room where kids of all ages could flail around and expel trivial angst without worry of putting holes in the walls.

As a byproduct of the shows, the store also sold a few records, and it holds a special corner in my memory as the place where I bought my first record, one that wasn’t a hand-me-down recommendation from mom and dad, passively introduced into my life.

I sought it out, and as such, I studied the liner notes, memorized the lyrics, recited them with my friends and scribbled them all over my notebooks. I drew the album art over and over, copied the lettering in the band’s logo for posters. I researched the record label and sought out other bands on its roster. In short, that first experience in record-buying taught me how to be an obsessive music fan. Without that skate shop, my life might be very different.

This all came to mind as I was thinking about the recently completed outdoor skate park in Central City Park. As I’m always thinking about what it takes to develop a fully-functioning music scene here in Macon, it occurred to me that perhaps an important step toward improving that scene has unknowingly been taken through the construction of the park and an investment in an often overlooked or misunderstood interest.

Music is intrinsically tied to skate culture, and I’m willing to bet that there are more than a few folks that use the park who are obsessing over records and sharing that knowledge with friends.

So, thanks to Macon-Bibb County Parks and Recreation for supporting the music scene in Macon. Here’s hoping they remember you in the history books.

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Skate park brings memories and musical connections."