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KINGSPORT - Blame it on genetics, or just love of the sport. Whatever it might be, roller skating has definitely been passed down through the blood of four generations of the Robinson family. Owners of Kingsport's Skate City for 20 years, the Robinson family can trace its roller skating roots back before the Depression era when four-year old Norma Reed slapped on her first pair of wooden wheels and went barreling down the street in Harrisonburg, Pa.
Now 82 years-young, Norma Reed Robinson remembers when she learned to walk on wheels.
"When I was four years old, my dad bought me a pair of skates with wooden wheels. He said 'When you learn how to skate on these, I'll buy you a good pair.' Well I skated on them all day one day, and I told him that night that I needed a pair of skates. So he bought me the old ball bearings that they had years ago. You had to have a key to them, and you'd wear the key on a string around your neck. After that, he had to buy me a pair of shoes every two weeks because I would pull the soles off my shoes,” Robinson said. Robinson's family moved to Kingsport in her teen years and she recalls the move was difficult to adjust to. There were no skating rinks in the area, no wooden floors to glide along with Calliope music in the background. Through the years, Norma said she waited and waited for a skating rink to come to Kingsport. In 1973, she got her wish when Skate City was opened by the original owner, William E. Smidley.
Norma did not let her 50-year age slow her down. She got right out and skated with all the kids, often bringing her grandchildren to skate three times a week.
“When they first put in the paper that they were building this rink, I was the first one up here to look at it. I came in and looked at it before it was even open. I was up here with her (Norma's Granddaughter Alisha) to the all-night skate, and I'd skate all night. I've skated many a skate around this rink,” Norma said.
Norma was at the rink so often, that the owner asked her to manage the snack bar at the rink. During the hey-day of skating rinks, Norma would crank out hot dogs and nachos for a crowd of nearly 400 to 500 people a night.
Norma ended up managing the rink for a couple of years, and then her son took over management. When Smidley decided to sell the rink in 1983, Norma bought it. At a time when most folks are ready for retirement, Norma had her own business. The business was leased out to Bo Phillips in 1991, and the Robinson's took the business back over [in 2002] after his retirement.
Today, Robinson's grandson, John M. Robinson, and her granddaughter, Alisha Atkins, run the business. And three of Norma Robinson's great grandchildren work at the rink.
“Both my kids, they took a step, and they started skating,” said Atkins.
Norma says she hasn't been on a pair of skates since she was in her 60s. Although she says she wished she could keep it up because its great exercise, arthritis has forced her to retire her wheels. Through the years, Alisha, John and Norma say they've seen changes in the business. There have been up and down cycles, but there's always been a consistent crowd.
In the last couple of years, the family has made major investments to the building, with a new wood floor and new rental skates.
They say more and more families, many who started skating as children in the hey-day of disco and the early 80s, are bringing their kids back to Skate City for good, clean fun.
“When it first opened, you'd have about 500 people on this floor,” said Atkins. “Now we range between 300 and 400. Music is the big change of course. We have a few more things that we do now, and the floor is new. It's a wood floor now.”
“Next to swimming, it's the best exercise for your heart,” said Norma. “We have more families out here than we used to.”
“For any type of small business to stay open for 30 years in this area, that is something. It's not easy.” said John M. Robinson.
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