Thing 100 Skate in a Skate Park

I remember thinking skateboarding was cool when skateboarding wasn't cool. Then it became cool, but by then I was old. Even when it wasn't cool, but I thought it was, I hadn't the dexterity or the coordination to make a skateboarder of myself. Or the patience. Apparently it takes lots of patience. I'm a little scattered for that kind of thing. If I'm not instantly good at it, I'll probably just not do it.
These guys though - they've been at this for years. One of them's broken serious bones, they've had cracked ribs. They took pity on the old fogies that turned up at the skate-park (Pony Boy and me). I brought my crappy cheap board that I'd picked up in a toy store. They all had the good grace not to laugh out loud in my face when I arrived in.
They all had the even better grace not to laugh too loud when I fell on my ass. I did a fake laugh. I pretended I didn't care. Stupid skateboard. Stupid kids with their funky dress sense and reasonable dexterity. Damn their graceful boarding and chunky shoes. I bounced twice more before one of them came over to help.
How cool does that look? Oh yeah. I'm out on the edge. I live life to the full. I'm in an ad for pepsi max and it's the mid 90's. I definitely didn't fall on my face and or back and roll ten feet in front of the end of that slope. And there's no way you could prove it if I did.
And I didn't have to use my crappy board either. The boys gave me a lend of theirs. But not before demonstrating some excellent stunt stuff. Hang ten or something like that. I figure I should have been giving out about the young people, with their long hair and their rock musics and their hip hop. But these guys were actually kind of cool. Not what I expected skateboarders to be. There was none of that teenage angst crap. Just pretty decent blokes showing us the tricks of their trade.
Dammit. Even Pony Boy looks like one of them punk kids. With his hat. And his face.
Yep. There's nothing like finishing a long day at work, getting home at half nine in the evening and picking up a skateboard, having never practiced before, and heading off to a skate-park. I've sore bits. I'll never make a boarder now. But at least I know some people who are eh? Thanks to Brian, Conor and Alan.

Damn kids.