- Just go easy and grab the rail.

(man chuckling) (rollerblades clicking) (groovy upbeat music) - I'm excited to announce that Field Trip is back.

I'm here at Guptill's roller skating rink with my colleagues Greg, Joe, and Nicole.

Now let's go inside and talk to Mr. Guptill to learn about the history of this amazing rink.

Follow me.

(groovy upbeat music) - My father started building in 1946 (groovy upbeat music) and he built it all himself.

We opened February 14th, 1951.

And he cut all the lumber out of his own woods, put up his own saw mill and put the floor down and built the arena.

(upbeat groovy music) And we opened up on Valentine's day, 1951.

(upbeat groovy music) He opened it because he had inflammatory rheumatism and he couldn't walk.

And he went with a local church party rollerskating.

And after a period of six months, he gets to go walk again.

So we come home, and he told my mother, he says, Margaret we're going to build a roller rink.

And he did.

(groovy upbeat music) It's the world's largest indoor roller skating rink in the world.

(upbeat groovy music) It's a family run place, run by a family, not by a corporation.

And there's always a Guptill here when it's open.

And I think that's the best way to run a business today.

You have to be with your business.

I met my wife here.

My father hired her as the check room girl.

And I met her here and we've been married a number of years.

I love the old cars on the stage because they were dads.

The old murals on the walls, which were done in the fifties.

And just the general layout of the rink.

The whole history of it was just seeing decade after decade, and people after people, and the rock and roll era, the disco era.

(groovy upbeat music) Since I was a kid, we had clamp on skates.

That you had to have the skate (indistinct) man take a wrench and put on.

And of course you don't have that today.

You have, they're all precision bearings and they're great, the skates are.

And it's much quieter.

(groovy upbeat music) - It's just a part of my life, it's just, it's all I can say.

It's just been an absolute part of my life that, you know, you live it, you're here.

And enjoying the people, seeing the people, see them have a good time and see them leave with a smile on their face when they leave and they come back because they had such a good time.

- Always love being on wheels man.

- Great, I want to come back again.

(groovy upbeat music) - Thank you for joining us on this field trip to Guptill's Arena.

- For more episodes of Field Trip, visit us at wmsc.org/field trip.

- Let us know where you think we should go next.

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