I had the pleasure of spending my weekend with Brynn Paulin and Dakota Rebel who came for a visit. I had a fantastic time with these two. There was much food, even more laughter and there was the roller derby. I didn't even know Grand Rapids had a team - but we do, the Raggedy Girls and they're good. More surprising to me was the fact that I liked it. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo not a sports girl, but despite that, watching the roller derby was insanely entertaining. Even better than the skating action itself was the people watching. I don't think I've ever seen such and interesting mix of people.
There were the skater chicks - tough and super competitive. Those women are absolutely amazing to watch. There were the refs - my favorite was the dude who wore an itty bitty gold lame bikini Ala Rocky in the Rocky Horror Picture Show during the first half and pink ruffle-butt panties during the second half. There were the skater groupies - both men and women, many of them heavily tattooed and pierced. Some were clearly family and others definitely groupies. There were people that looked like they'd stopped by after a PTA meeting and those who were heading to the biker bar afterward. There were little kids and one little old lady who was celebrating her 79th birthday by seeing her first roller derby bout.
After talking about the derby with several women I know, I discovered that many of them wanted to be roller derby skaters when they were kids. I wonder what it is about this sport that interests so many. So what about you? Did you ever have any burning desire to be a derby skater? Or to participate in any other relatively dangerous sport?
