Picture Enfield - Then and Now

ENFIELD, CT — Today's installment of this weekly Enfield history series, courtesy of the Facebook group Picture Enfield, takes us back about four decades, to a time when Friday and Saturday nights were spent going in circles in tune to some pulsating grooves.

• "Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical..."
• "She's a super freak, super freak, she's super freaky, yowwwww..."
• "What a feeling, bein's believin', I can have it all, now I'm dancing for my life..."

Enfield Roller World was THE place to be on weekend nights from 1980 to 1987, with disco lights rolling around the walls and floor. Roller skating (yes, skating, not blading) was the primary activity, though many of us preferred to just hang out and pretend to be cool. Different types of skating throughout the evening: couples skate, fast skate, backwards skate (which we hockey players could do to perfection on ice, but on wheels? Fuhgettaboutit).

At some point in the mid-1980s, management decided to go for an even younger crowd by introducing Studio New York, "the teen night club for 12-18 yrs." according to this crude hand-drawn flyer recently unearthed from the archives.

Punk rock bands also became part of the scene in the mid-1980s. A partial list of groups which appeared at the rink in 1986 includes (get a load of some of these names) Black Flag, Verbal Assault, Psycho, Slapshot, Youth of Today, Agnostic Front, Executioner, D.R.I., Corrosion of Conformity, Melvins, Underdog and Cro-Mags. Here is a promotional poster found in the digital archive collection of the University of Connecticut.

Prior to the roller rink, I seem to recall Bradlee's and Stop & Shop in that location, followed by a grocery store named Budget Foods. In the years since the rink's demise, a number of businesses have operated in the main part of that space, including Serv-U Hardware, a Lia car dealership and Whirlyball. The building currently contains Carr Hardware, Dollar General and Most Excellent Comics & Collectibles, which recently moved from the north side of the building to the south end.

Here is a more recent photo, taken about a year ago prior to Most Excellent's move, courtesy of Google Maps.

Last week's trivia answer:
Last week's trivia question was, "When Kosciuszko Junior High School closed in 1982, Armand Regalbuti was still the principal, but who were the three housemasters?" The answer: Catherine Warren (Abbe), William Cutler (Morgan) and Stephen Ross (Thompson). Photo from the 1982 yearbook, courtesy of the Enfield Historical Society via archive.org.

This week's trivia question:
Longtime Kosciuszko science teacher and cross country coach Gary Blanchette, shown in the photo collage directly above this question wearing glasses and a tie, was known by what nickname? Post the answer in the comments section below, or on the Enfield Patch Facebook page.