AFTERNOON SHOPPERS’ BREAK Caant Buttery Cinnamon Roll OF tHhlueberry Muttin or Bran Muffin with Coffee (coffee retilis 25¢) Monday - Friday From 3:00 5:00 pm Park Royal’s Friendly Restaurant NEWS photo Stuart Davis COLONY HOME FURNISHINGS IS NOW OPEN With TV’s, Major Appliances, Bedding, Furniture and Money-Saving WAREHOUSE PRICES B H November 16,, 1983 Newsroom 9385-2131 “*THE FIRST time | went, | had blisters so bad | could hardly walk and I was black and blue and bruised from falling down.’’ That’s one of the ways Lynn remembers a more in- nocent time — and _ the centerpiece of that time, the Stardust roller rink. Lynn wasn’t there when they closed the doors for the last time Saturday night, br- inging to an end a 19-year history as a North Shore recreation and social centre. She stopped skating there regularly 10 years ago, when she got her first part-time job. “‘T guess | outgrew it,’ she says of why she stopped. Now, it is the North Shore that has outgrown the Star- dust roller rink. The demographics don’t match the concept anymore. **Part of it ( the reason for the closing) was the economy but it was more the fact thar the area of the North Shore has built up,’ says Bonnie Burnside who, for the past three years, has managed the 14th Street rink. **‘When we built there the North Shore was a fairly young area and the people were able to support the rink. MATHEW HOYT (right) and Jeffrey Stonehouse of Vancouver await their ride home, with rollerskates in hand and sad expressions. Saturday night marked the closing night for Star- dust roller rink in North Vancouver which closed its doors duc to a lack of children on the North Shore. IF YOU FIND IT ADVERTISED FOR LESS — WE’LL REFUND THE DIFFERENCE! COME SEE FOR YOURSELF ...We're Open Monday - Saturday 9 am - 5:30 pm MARK HAMILTO Now there just aren’t enough teenagers and children to keep it going.” Seventy per cent of the customers, says Burnside, were kids under the age of 17. One of them was Lynn, now approaching her 25th birthday. She was exposed to the rink through school and it quickly became a part of her early teen years. There was the ritual of boarding the bus early Saturday morning with a fnend, bound for the rink and two or three hours of skating. ‘‘lt was always a fun place to go,’’ Lynn says. ‘‘Everyone was there for the same reason — to have fun and to rollerskate. | was get- ting up at nine o’clock on a Saturday morning to be there. Obviously we want to be there. It was fun and, | guess, exciting.”” What made it fun was the atmosphere of the place — loud music, a predominantly young group and the boys. SECTION FASHION - FOOD TRAVEL North Shore outgrows Stardust roller rink ‘“*When you’re that young,’’ Lynn remembers, ‘‘you have little crushes on certain boys. You’d sit there and hope they’d ask you to skate with them. You got to hold hands and go around the rink.’’ You could tell the boys that really liked you, she adds, because they'd come up from behind ‘‘and kind of trip you.”’ Today, there is no early ris- ing on Saturday and none of the excitement of that weekly trip to the Stardust. More likely, Lynn says, Saturday mornings are sleeping in now.”’ “It wasn't a fad back then,’’ she says. ‘‘It was just people who got together because they enjoyed roller skating.” Her reaction to the news earlier this month that the rink would close was first ‘‘kind of shock’’ and then regret when she didn’t attend the final night’s skating, held Saturday. ‘‘l really would have loved to have gone back,’’ Lynn says. All the way back to the simplicity of those days? ‘‘For sure. It was a riot. CONTINUED ON PAGE C2 COLONY HOME FURNISHINGS Warechousod/Distribution Centro 1075 Roosevelt Crescent neni on cone wa North Vancouver 985-8738 Noxt to Eaton’s Park Royal 1010 South Park Royal, W. Van 922-6215 220 OQ TOW REALONE WO, BANNR EE”