Every time I see Deputy Wendell's signature, I am reminded of one of the funnest times I had skating. It was in Valley Park, Missouri. The locals called that place Wet Willy's and a ton of cool shit went down there before it got dozed. I could barely do any tricks there and some of the shit that was done there is mind-blowing like Silas's back tail through the first corner. I don't think I ever skated something that fun and gnarly at the same time. The straightaways with no flatbottom were so challenging. I wore shorts like a dip shit and got chips of blue lead-based paint embedded in the skin in my legs but it healed up fine after I picked them out. I also got a citation for trespassing and had to pay a fine before I left the state. The cop who gave me the ticket was so mad at us for skating the waterslide he was shaking and his jaw was clenched. Maybe the cops are freaked out about coming out there because the whole thing was covered with Satanic graffiti.
hey Digital, thanks for sharing this man...i think you commented about being from around that spot before, and i meant to comment and didn't.
i'm old enough at this point (and have skated enough spots in different places that i've seen in videos) to know that as fun as that spot--and Omar's line there--looks, i'm sure it is NOT easy to skate...it looks fast and narrow and hectic as shit.
the story about the cop is funny (i love the clinched jaw detail), and correspondingly, i feel like some of the worst experiences with cops that i've had in like 35-years of skating, have been at the sites of businesses that have gone out of business. like when i was younger, we didn't pour concrete like diy spots now, but we just stacked parking blocks and nailed garbage and wood from shuttered windows together for boxes and ramps and shit. i wrote about an abandoned Burger King that friends and i turned into a spot when i was a kid, when i was working on my MA at the University of Chicago, and my--perhaps flimsy--theory about why cops and "normal" consumers would react so hostilely about us skating it, is that skaters are essentially reveling in blatant signs of economic collapse when we're enjoying ourselves at these out-of-business spots. it's easy to dismiss how much anxiety an empty and boarded-up business causes "normal" consumers, especially in the suburbs, where the landscape is supposed to convey safety, comfort, and plenty.
i don't know, your story brought that to mind--it's like the cops are already feeling some kind of anxiety/trauma over the fact that this shut-down "fun park" is just radiating bad economic times and instability, but then they have to deal with all of these skaters just having a blast in and on it, and it doesn't compute and that irrational anger is the only thing that surfaces...
...shit, i guess...again, just a theory. thanks again for some history on the spot!