(UN)RELIABLE SOURCES: 021
SKATING ALONG

by FRANK O'DONNELL
DECEMBER 27, 2006

All I can say is, it's about time. North Providence is finally getting its very own skateboard park.

I can remember back when the skate park was first proposed like it was yesterday. It was 1997. May, I think. Might have been the 17th. It was an unseasonably warm day.

A bunch of us were sunbathing on the lawn outside Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, when someone asked, in an offhanded way, "You know what would be great on a day like today?"

It was a rhetorical question, really, but someone else had to answer.

"Skateboarding! Skateboarding would be great on a day like today!"

Every head in the group popped up, as if an electric eel had jumped into our hot tub. (We weren't really in a hot tub – that's just a metaphor. Or maybe an analogy – I get those two mixed up all the time.)

The second we heard it, we knew. Skateboarding would be great.

Someone else flipped open his cell phone and punched a button. "Hey, Ralph," he said when the Mayor answered. "We all just decided, today's the perfect day for… Yeah, that's right, skateboarding. How did you know?"

He still had a look of awe on his face as he slowly closed the cover on his phone. "That guy's unbelievable. It's like he knows what we're thinking. You know what, someday, that guy's gonna be Secretary of State, you mark my words."

By the time we'd rolled up our towels and packed up our lawn chairs, the Mayor had put together a proposal to erect a skateboard park at Evans Field. When reporters asked why, Ralph just chuckled. "Are you kidding me? After you just experienced this gorgeous day, the type of day that could only be made better by some carefree skateboarding, you have to ask me why?"

That's when the Mayor got a little philosophical. "Ask not why we need a skateboard park. Ask rather why we don't have a skateboard park already." Not exactly JFK, but certainly Kennedyesque.

Fast forward to 2007. The Mayor's vision is coming to life. Ironically, it's at the top of Stephen Olney Park, just off High Service Avenue, across from the very lawn on which some casual sunbathing birthed the idea.

Some people call it Ralph's legacy. As he moves to his new low-numbered Smith Street address, some folks are saying that the Stephen Olney Skate Park is a tribute to Ralph's stick-to-it nature. "He finishes what he starts and that's a great tribute to him," said his Recreation Director only recently.

(Note to whoever's in charge of naming things: Aren't there enough things in town named after Stephen Olney? Can't we name this one spot after someone who might actually have known what a skateboard was?)

Granted, the project took ten years. But I ask you, was Rome built in a day? The Great Wall of China in a week? The Taj Mahal in a month?

No, no, and I don't think so.

So why would we expect anything different from the Great Skate Park?
(Note to whoever's in charge of naming things: "Great Skate Park" isn't my nomination for a name, but it does have a certain rhyming ring to it, don't you think?)

Gone are the days when the skateboarders of North Providence are forced to skateboard outside the library, or in front of convenience stores. This fabulous 70 x 100 haven is theirs, to do with as they will – except when the DPW guys shut it down for periodic maintenance.

I look forward to the skate park's opening. According to all reports, it's coming soon – perhaps in the next couple of weeks. Of course, should it snow, the opening will be delayed, unless we can get the DPW guys to trudge down the hill with their shovels, while visions of double overtime dance in their heads.

On the day that the skate park does open, I hope that Secretary Mollis will proudly ride a skateboard to work.

And when someone asks what that contraption is under his feet, he can hold it high and say, "This, my friend, is my legacy!"

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Care to join the North Providence Gang? Occasionally, I send out e-mails to get the Gang's opinion on a variety of topics related to our town. If you'd like to get in on the fun, send me an e-mail at frankocomedy@cox.net and I'll sign you up!