Sue Goggins of New Skateland
Sue Goggins, owner and operator of Skateland, a rollerskating rink business re-purposed by her late husband Trunnis Goggins in the early 70's from a storefront/s building at 33 E. Ferry, one block east of Main St., speaks on her experience running a business on the corridor. Re: a sense of the a corridor... Not until recently, I've watched the area change, it's multi-racial now. At one point, even 10 years ago, it was all African American. But now I look out Skateland's door now and I see all nationalities and the whole area's changed. Re: mixed population in Cold Springs... You know I don't know ... but I know nobody came here, this was a strictly black business. As a matter of fact, back in the 80s, a school booked a party over the phone, and they came by 2 buses. And they showed up, and they didn't know it was a black business, and the teachers walked in the door, and asked Trunnis, Could we have our money back, and he said, No, and they left, they would not come to a black business, that was early 80's, they were not coming to this area, but they came to the area willingly. And they got right back on that bus and left. Re: rollerskating's ability to build community... Rollerskating has an ability to bring people together, bringing families together, especially bringing families together, all ages groups, from 2 years old up to grandparents, oh yeah, and bringing the community together, you'll get 20 neighborhoods in here skating and getting along. Re: rollerskating's timelessness, and it's contribution to Skateland's success... I think as long as like what I'm doing now, building baby-skaters, it can go on forever, as long as you got the young people. The kids used to walk to skating years ago, remember, it was a neighborhood thing and they'd walk, and now parents don't let their kids walk anywhere, at all, at all. If they don't drive them, they can't come. Saturday, if you got like 200 kids in here, maybe 4 come by bus, the rest of them are dropped off. Re: proximity to Main St. Oh it's definitely helped. I mean it's an invisible line. Now they're coming across, the West side's coming to the East side, as a matter of fact I just booked a party today from the West side. So yeah, they're crossing over now, I think because I'm so close to Main St.
