Culture by People Magazine
Documentary Series

The Story of Skateland, Half-Way Tree

Chapter One — The Question

There are some memories that never really leave you.

You don't think about them every day.

They simply wait.

Quietly.

Then, years later, something happens, and they return as though they had never left.

For me, it was the roller-skate youths of Kingston.

I grew up on Grass Quilt Glade in Kingston, Jamaica. From where I lived, the movie of these roller-skate youths seemed to play in only a few places: Half-Way Tree, Cross Roads, Hagley Park Road and the Waltham Park Road stoplight.

They appeared without warning.

Long before I knew the name Skateland, I would watch young men on roller skates, holding onto buses, trucks and cars, weaving through traffic with a confidence that fascinated me as a boy. Sometimes I would catch only a glimpse of them before they disappeared into the city again. 

The only way I could relive those scenes was by chance, or while travelling with a family member.

Back then, I never asked who they were.

I never asked how they learned to do that.

To me, they had always been there.

The memory stayed exactly where memories usually stay—quietly tucked away.

Then, while working on another Culture by People documentary about growing up in Kingston, those roller-skate youths returned to my mind. At first, I wasn't trying to uncover their history. I simply wanted to create a T-shirt to honor the roller-skate youths I remembered weaving through Kingston's streets. 

The design was finished.

But one question kept coming back.

Where did roller skating in Jamaica begin?

At first, I thought the answer would be simple.

A quick search.

A few old photographs.

Perhaps a few short paragraphs online.

But most of what I found pointed to the same chapter in Skateland's story.

I was searching for the story behind Jamaica's roller-skating culture.

Today, the internet remembers Skateland mainly for its later years under Clinton "Jingles" Davy, when it became one of Jamaica's legendary dancehall and sound system venues. While many sources acknowledge that it was once a roller skating rink, very little is written about its beginning or the street skating culture that first captured my imagination. 

That search became this documentary.

What started as a childhood memory slowly became an investigation.

I began searching through decades of The Daily Gleaner newspaper archives, not knowing exactly what I would find. One article led to another. One date led to the next. Slowly, pieces of a forgotten story began finding one another again. 

The more I read, the clearer it became.

The internet remembered Skateland.

The newspapers remembered its story.

And there was a difference.

The First Clue

Then, in the Tuesday, June 2, 1970 edition of The Daily Gleaner, I found an advertisement that had been waiting for decades for someone to notice it. 

Across the top were the words:

"NOW OPEN!"

Beneath them,

"Jamaica's first and only complete roller skating rink."

But it wasn't the headline that made my day.

It was the small line at the bottom:

"Ask your friends how to get there."

That is genius. 

It didn't simply give directions.

It invited conversation.

In one sentence, I could almost hear Kingston in 1970. Friends telling friends. Children asking their parents. Neighbours pointing the way to the newest attraction in Half-Way Tree.

I wasn't simply remembering the roller-skate youths anymore.

I was beginning to understand them.

And then, buried inside another edition of the newspaper, I found a sentence that changed everything.

"A new sport has been officially launched in Jamaica."

Those words appeared in The Daily Gleaner just four days after the official opening of Skateland in Half-Way Tree on June 6, 1970. 

I was no longer simply researching a skating rink.

I realized I was standing at the beginning of a story that had quietly waited more than half a century for someone to piece it together again. 

This is the story I set out to find.

Somewhere in Half-Way Tree on June 6, 1970...

A ribbon had already been stretched across the entrance.

A large crowd had begun to gather.

The doors were about to open.

Without knowing it...

they were about to become part of Jamaica’s history.

The Design That Started It All

What began as a simple idea to honor the roller-skate youths of Kingston became the beginning of this documentary.

 

The Kingston Roller-Skate Youths Heritage Edition became a real T-shirt after months of research and design. This photograph shows the actual printed garment created for the Culture by People Magazine documentary series.

Continue the story. Own the Heritage Edition.

 

Continue Reading

➡ Chapter Two: June 6, 1970 — What Kingston Was Like the Day Skateland Opened