Roller Drome: roller skating in north Edmonton in the 1940s, by Betty Millman

A little girl and her brother ride the streetcar across the High Level Bridge to go roller skating with their cousin.

A roller skating rink on the north of Edmonton was a favorite of ours. We went often during the war.

To get there we took the red and white streetcar down White Avenue over the High Level Bridge and north to Jasper Avenue and 109th Street. Here we transferred off the red and green, which went on Jasper Avenue to 124th Street. There it turned north and proceeded to the end of the line at 114th Avenue. The Roller Drome was located on 116th Avenue.

We rented roller skates on these outings. The Roller Drome was very popular with American soldiers. They were up here to build the Alaska Highway and were stationed at the exhibition grounds.

We had a fifteen-year-old cousin living with us at the time. She was very attractive – long, fair hair and big brown eyes. The Americas were quite taken with her. My brother, now eight years old, and I, ten years old, went along to chaperone, we said!

Our mother got carsick. The swaying and click-clicking motion of the streetcar had the same effect on her, so she didn’t come with us on our streetcar ventures. But she didn’t say that we couldn’t go.

My brother and I went everywhere. Edmonton was a kinder, gentler place then.