New York Sign Language Sorry, Kids: These Skates Are for Adults By BOB YAMPOLSKY	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
スケートは大人のもの ニューヨークでは、早く移動でき、小回りがきいて、エクササイズにもなるインラインスケートが大流行。でも、その存在を迷惑に思う人もいるようです。そして、その気持ちを代弁するような看板も出現しました。

Our sign for today is in the window of a Starbucks Coffee Shop on Broadway. Coffee shops may be fading away in Japan, but in New York they are the latest boom. There are coffee shops everywhere, and many of them belong to the Starbucks chain. Like another Seattle-based company ― Microsoft ― Starbucks has come to dominate its field: Its nickname in Seattle is "The Evil Empire."

However our topic today is not Starbucks, but an even bigger boom in New York: Rollerblades. Rollerblades, of course, are a new type of roller skate that no one calls roller skates. I call them roller skates because doing so annoys Rollerbladers, and I like annoying them because they annoy me.

The official name of these toys is in-line skates. (Hence the sign: "No In-Line Skates, Pets or Bicycles allowed in the store.") But nobody calls them that. In-line skaters call their skates blades, as in, "Hey, did you bring your blades today?" This is also used as a verb: "I went blading in the park yesterday." Blades sounds cool and sharp, and dropping the roller part makes the difference from roller skates seem all the greater.

Admittedly in-line skates are different from traditional roller skates: All the little wheels are in a single line. This is what makes them more difficult to use than roller skates (and more like the blades on ice skates) and what makes them go faster. They also have very large boots attached and are rather expensive.

But perhaps the biggest difference is this: The overwhelming majority of people who use them are adults. Rollerblades, in other words, are roller skates for adults.

In Manhattan you see in-line skaters everywhere: on the sidewalk, in the street, in the park. Many are fast and agile, handsome, athletic men and women wearing all the right, expensive gear (helmet, knee pads, elbow pads). They zip right past you at alarming speeds. Some, however, are fast but not so agile, and it is they who worry me. (Recently a tall young woman rolled passed me, arms flailing: She knew how to go but apparently not how to stop. Just as she came to the end of the sidewalk she grabbed onto a signpost and fell to the ground hard. "I'm all right, I'm all right, I'm all right," she said to everyone staring at her. I hid my smile as I walked by.)

I've seen in-line skaters in banks, skaters in supermarkets, skaters getting into taxis, skaters in suits going to work. I've seen skaters being pulled by their running dogs. I've even seen an in-line skater mom pushing a double stroller holding her twin kids. I came very close to being knocked over by a skater on Lexington Avenue last winter.("Watch it!" the fellow called out as he barreled down the crowded sidewalk.)

Like many other people, I find this to be very childish behavior, so even though I do not particularly like Starbucks (expensive coffee served in paper cups) I was happy to see that it had put up this "No In-Line Skates" sign. At Starbucks you buy your coffee at the counter and bring it to your seat. One wobbly skater, obviously, could cause great havoc here, so it is a very reasonable sign, I think.

Anyhow, this phenomenon of adults roller-skating about is part of a larger phenomenon in American society: Adults play and are very serious about playing. They spend a lot of time and energy and money on playing. I guess there is nothing really wrong with this ― but sometimes you stop and wonder: If all these adults are playing, what are the children doing now?

In J.D. Salinger's novel, "Catcher in the Rye," which was written in the 1950s, the protagonist Holden goes to the mall in Central Park, looking for his younger sister, who is 12. There is a large paved area, and children gather there for roller-skating.

If you go to that area in Central Park today, you will see that the place is filled with skaters. Around and around they go, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily. Ah, you might think, isn't this nice: skating at the mall in Central Park, a New York tradition. But look closely: You will not see a single child.

Shukan ST: June 27, 1997

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