Motion 26 Hwy. 26, Oxford, ME
This very unique rink, Motion 26 was named after the highway the rink sat by. It was in Oxford, Maine. There is even a book written. Like another rink down in Florida that has a paperback book that I received as a gift. This one also has many photographs, memories, stories from everyone involved in that rink such as staff and skaters both. It is much storied rink that brought back a lot of memories. One of more popular rinks in the region I would have to say from the sound of it. I have not read the book but I am going to order one! They are available online. Written by the former owner of Motion 26. When you search that name without roller rink, you get nothing, you have to type in, "Motion 26 Roller Rink, Highway 26, Oxford, Maine" to get the listing. I understand places like this one does not want to add the rest of the words if people knew what was the place all about. This is like Motion 26 is to roller rink as The Roxy is to a roller rink or Studio 57 is to the famous or infamous discotheque where Saturday Night Fever was filmed at and was on TV for Disco contests each week, long before Dancing with the Stars came along.
OK, back to this rink. Patricia Probert Gott, the former owner who owned the rink authored the book, Roller Rink Rules: Memories of Motion 26, Oxford, Maine. Please click and order one for yourself or find it online!
I will add more after I order it and perhaps after Thanksgiving (2020, wrote this profile on November 11, 2020) I will have more information to share.
Good job, Pat for authoring the book.
It began in March 1981 and ran a good 24 years till she closed its doors in August 2005. I do not have dates. Likely its in the book.
I have an issue with Sun Journal because you have to subscribe to their newspapers to read because of the pop up blocker demanding subscription and the shortest amount of time is 5 weeks for 4 Dollars. I am only interested in a few hours in a single day to read a few and take notes and put it on here! So, Sun Journal is not counted as source due to the blockage. Their library may have it on microfilm but I have to be there to read that. I do not have the budget to go town to town to check their historical societies and newspaper offices and libraries to check out for roller rinks. I do not make money and I do not have a full time job to make money to go on a trip and if I had a full time, I would not be able to go on a trip because of work. This is why if you support Dead-Rinks, then maybe I can go but I will need like 300 to 500 dollars a week to travel. Gas, state parks, federal parks to park my trailer and then there are food, drinks, library and newspaper printouts of their microfilms.. Come on. Think about that. Then there is money to pay for me to go to alive rinks and do interviews and check out and score them..
I have no photos, no exact location of the former rink in Oxford. Route 26/Main Street is quite long street and I have no idea where exactly this rink was. Any one know? When I was doing researching on Google Map, you would see a former entertainment center on Route 26-- the Oxford Plains Fun Park. It was a go-karts, Mini-Golf, and arcade center. Now a firework store. They went out of business between 2016 and 2019 around there.
Back to the rink, where?!!!? I see address as just this: Route 26, no building/property number? Quite odd for a rink from 1980s to do that. How would out of towners know where this rink was? Not everyone at the gas stations would know where that is. By the way, I noticed ALL gas stations fail to have a huge printed map like the toll highways would have at their rest stops. Good question why gas stations do not.
So, where was this rink, this would be a huge help to find where it was so I can use real estate and property tax information to find out size of property, building size, etc.
The Interior.
N/A.
The Exterior.
N/A.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: N/A.
Roof: N/A.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: March 1981 to August 2005.
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding actual dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos.
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Ebay (may be sold); Turner Publishing;
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.
OK, back to this rink. Patricia Probert Gott, the former owner who owned the rink authored the book, Roller Rink Rules: Memories of Motion 26, Oxford, Maine. Please click and order one for yourself or find it online!
I will add more after I order it and perhaps after Thanksgiving (2020, wrote this profile on November 11, 2020) I will have more information to share.
Good job, Pat for authoring the book.
It began in March 1981 and ran a good 24 years till she closed its doors in August 2005. I do not have dates. Likely its in the book.
I have an issue with Sun Journal because you have to subscribe to their newspapers to read because of the pop up blocker demanding subscription and the shortest amount of time is 5 weeks for 4 Dollars. I am only interested in a few hours in a single day to read a few and take notes and put it on here! So, Sun Journal is not counted as source due to the blockage. Their library may have it on microfilm but I have to be there to read that. I do not have the budget to go town to town to check their historical societies and newspaper offices and libraries to check out for roller rinks. I do not make money and I do not have a full time job to make money to go on a trip and if I had a full time, I would not be able to go on a trip because of work. This is why if you support Dead-Rinks, then maybe I can go but I will need like 300 to 500 dollars a week to travel. Gas, state parks, federal parks to park my trailer and then there are food, drinks, library and newspaper printouts of their microfilms.. Come on. Think about that. Then there is money to pay for me to go to alive rinks and do interviews and check out and score them..
I have no photos, no exact location of the former rink in Oxford. Route 26/Main Street is quite long street and I have no idea where exactly this rink was. Any one know? When I was doing researching on Google Map, you would see a former entertainment center on Route 26-- the Oxford Plains Fun Park. It was a go-karts, Mini-Golf, and arcade center. Now a firework store. They went out of business between 2016 and 2019 around there.
Back to the rink, where?!!!? I see address as just this: Route 26, no building/property number? Quite odd for a rink from 1980s to do that. How would out of towners know where this rink was? Not everyone at the gas stations would know where that is. By the way, I noticed ALL gas stations fail to have a huge printed map like the toll highways would have at their rest stops. Good question why gas stations do not.
So, where was this rink, this would be a huge help to find where it was so I can use real estate and property tax information to find out size of property, building size, etc.
The Interior.
N/A.
The Exterior.
N/A.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: N/A. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: N/A. Demolished: N/A.
Type of Building: N/A.
Roof: N/A.
Acres: N/A.
Operated: March 1981 to August 2005.
Reason for Closure: N/A.
Wanted: Information regarding actual dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also photos.
Anyone has pictures and/or information please let me know at [email protected]. Thank you.
Sources: Ebay (may be sold); Turner Publishing;
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:16.