A roller rink-shaped hole now inhabits the heart of southeastern Connecticut.

My coworker Erica wrote the full story on the whos and whats and whys, but for those of you who didn’t see it, Galaxy Roller Rink closed for good mid-February due to safety concerns stemming from a leaking roof.

Being in the local roller derby circles, I found out about it a day or two before the general public did. And to be fair, it wasn’t unexpected, since the recent rains and snows turned the rink into bucket city and forced us to cancel seven of nine scheduled practices in February. But that doesn’t make the closure any easier.

My memories of Galaxy go back to 2000 or 2001 when I went to Deans Mill in Stonington, and we’d go there for skate night fundraisers or birthday parties or Saturday morning skate with my neighbors.

I remember being reliant on that yellow rail and not looking forward to that part in every lap when I’d reach the long gap along the far wall. I remember feeling proud of myself for not eating the floor when we all went to the center for the Hokey Pokey or Cha Cha Slide, a song I still associate with skating.

I know I’m not the only one with these kinds of memories. The rink was always busy on Sunday afternoons when we’d be getting in there just after open skate was done, and late skate on Fridays and Saturdays were usually pretty busy too. Most people who grew up locally, including my mom and gramma, skated there as kids, and many adults who grew up skating there have brought their kids there, too.

Some people got their minds blown by learning their parents could do cool stuff like skating backwards or “shooting the duck,” and I know of at least one person who met a spouse at the rink.

From the roller derby standpoint, this is a major loss for not one but two leagues. Shoreline had been there since the league was founded in 2011, from the biweekly practices to travel team bouts and fundraiser scrimmages.

I have no idea how many skaters have trained with Shoreline in that time, since I’ve only been involved for two years and we lose and gain a lot due to naval base transfers, but the league usually has 30-50 people at a given time, so it’s a lot.

CTJRD, the kids’ league, hadn’t been there as long; it was founded under the name New England Junior Roller Derby in January 2017 and merged with the Waterbury juniors’ league at the end of last year.

Nevertheless, there were 20 or so skaters ages 7-17 there most Tuesday nights, working hard on their stops and such on their path to becoming the faces of the next generation of roller derby.

(There’s also the artistic skating group that practiced there. I don’t know much about them other than the fact that their floor squigglies overlapped our track, but they were there when I skated in elementary school.)

The rink wasn’t much to write home about, but it had become a second home for a lot of us. Kids, twenty-somethings, fifty-somethings, parents, hobbyists, and everyone in between found their way into the “hallowed halls” that had only last year been painted anything other than the bright purple and yellow of my childhood. They were there for birthdays or fundraisers, the athleticism, the socialization, to get the kids out of the house or to get themselves out of the house.

But we were all there to better ourselves and lift each other up, even if that means off the floor.

Author's Note: After I wrote this for print, Skate Inn in Plainfield offered to house both leagues, at least temporarily, so Shoreline and CTJRD set up a GoFundMe to help pay for rent and find a bouting space; the rink is fine for practicing but not big enough for a regulation track.

Amanda Hutchinson is assistant community editor for the Times.