Oaks Amusement Park in Portland OR is an adorable vintage "trolley park" amusement park, but for Retro Roadmap the real draw, and TOTES worth making a visit is the ROLLER SKATING to LIVE ORGAN MUSIC! Oaks Park Roller Skating Rink is a Retro Roadmap fave for sure.
The park itself was opened in 1905. In 1948 the adjacent Willamette river flooded the entire park and the roller rink floor had to be replaced. Now it's on barrels and "floats" in case there's another flood! (There have been 2 floods since 1948 and both times this construction has saved the floor.)
The 100x200 maple floor is considered to be one of the largest rinks in the US.
And see that stuff hanging above? It's part of the Wurlitzer Organ that is played by a professional organist, so you have live organ music to skate by!
Mod Betty was grinning ear to ear the entire time about this! It was awesome to play "Name that Tune" (my favorite sport.)
Hearing the old standards played on the organ totally had me stepping - or rolling in this case - back in time.
Speaking of rolling...
If you haven't been on skates in a while there's a beginners section, I totally took 'em up on that:
Once I got back in the swing of things, I was off on the rink! No backwards skating for me tho, even though the neon signs were fab:
They've got a great selection of stickers from roller rinks from all over the place - I love looking at this stuff.
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