Pulling my car up to the family fun arena known as Star Castle, I can see that the owners really did want to go all out when it came to the castle theme. A fake drawbridge castle towers overhead and the building is painted an uninspiring dark grey to give it a realistic castle feel. A few friends and I walk in the door. In front of us is an extremely bored employee who doesn’t acknowledge us.
“Do we have to pay to get in?” I ask her.
She keeps looking down or over at her fellow employee and says “yes” out of the side of her mouth.
“Well, how much is it?”
“$5.50. You want skates?”
“Sure, why not,” I tell her.
“OK, then it’s $7.50.” She gives me the wristband to prove that I paid and I continue to stand there.
Without paying attention, my mouth opens and out comes, “Um, where do we get our skates?” She points at the doors to the right. I already hear the bad disco music playing from the skating rink.
As far as skating rinks go, I’m no expert, but I have been to a few. This one is pretty standard. Black lights light up the entire rink, with the exception of the white light coming from the window where we apparently will get our skates. The music is nothing but bad, bad disco. If it weren’t for the giant plastic dragon and the Merlin mounted on the wall, it would look like every other skating rink in the world.
People cruise by, their white shirts giving off the luminous glow that black lights cause. They look like the spirits of extras from some bad ’70s skate-disco movie. After I lace up my skates, I work my way out to the floor. I admit that I haven’t been on roller skates since I was about 8 years old. Even then I hated it. Like most of the children of the ’90s, I grew up scooting around on Rollerblades. I was never that good at those either. To my own credit though, the whole time I’m out on the floor I do not fall down.
After my friends and I get our fill of skating, we decide to try out the arcade, which is severely lacking. I’m not exactly an aficionado when it comes to video games, but even I can tell how unimpressive this arcade is. They don’t have a single Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or Virtua Fighter game. The only games they have are shooting and ticket games, which could say something about today’s culture. However, I doubt it. I think it says something about the clientele of Star Castle. Earlier, while waiting for one of our friends to arrive, we got a good view of the on-site security. We knew that his job was specifically to be security because he had a monogrammed polo shirt that read “security.” It was very official. He was packing a 9mm pistol and handcuffs. I’m a little grateful now that we went on one of their off days.
After hitting up the skating rink and the arcade, we sit in the cafeteria that smells a little like antiseptic. (You know how the doctor’s office smells? It’s kind of like that.) The only thing left for us to try out is laser tag. I go with my hopes and dreams kind of low. Since the rest of the place is rather unimpressive to me, I’m not expecting much. And at first, I’m dead on. The staff member that gives us the four rules of the game (no running, no sitting or laying down, stay five feet away from your opponent and no physical contact) acts less than hospitable.
However, once the game actually starts, we have a great time. We dart back and forth, ducking and diving behind barriers. Admittedly I suck at the game. I’m hit the most out of anyone on my team. Still, I have a great time.
Leaving the building sweaty with a huge grin on my face, I can’t help but feel proud that the business actually did have one very cool thing. I might try to go back again, even if it is only for laser tag.
