The 1970's skate parks came and went before many of us were old enough to notice. In Maryland we were very fortunate to have a few of these pay-to-play skate parks remain around after being closed. When I was in eighth grade, another student advertised Crofton skate park on the classroom blackboard; "Get rad in the bowls."

    My first ride at Crofton was in 1983, right around the time of these photos. A friend and I rode our BMX bikes all the way from Glenn Dale, about six miles. There was no one there, a Saturday, and only one or two small holes in the fence. We were actually breaking into an outdoor 'Sports Complex' with the best remaining skate park on the entire East Coast. The place included a batting cage, miniature golf, and a water slide. At the time, we were so young and clueless, the best we could do in the bowls was to throw one of the rubberized batting cage balls into the vert section and make it pop up out of the other side.

    Our ten minute visit ended abruptly when two county police arrived. They were at the front fence practically before we noticed. We ripped our bikes through the hole in the fence and ran with them down the dirt faced hill side, then peddled madly across the four lane highway below. After a few more months, the cops gave up and the hole in the fence widened to ten feet. There were more than a dozen people there at any one time, and the piles of discarded gatorade bottles were almost three feet tall. The older skaters had teams like the infamous 'East Coast Toke Team' and 'Team FUQ2', and they would bring their girl friends into part of the burned out pro shop. Another favorite activity was to ride down the water slide coffin-style.