Mike Pitzer

1960s Vintage Union Roller Skate Mike Pitzer

Graphite and Colored Pencil on Canson Paper 20" x 26" $2670

This drawing is from my evolving series of artwork I call “Happy Art.” They’re images of things from my childhood that not only make me smile, they bring about wonderful conversations on

Facebook. The problem with having steel roller skates back in the day was that growing up on the St. Clair River in Algonac, Michigan we didn’t have paved sidewalks. We had streets coated with tar and sprinkled with gravel. If we wanted to roller skate, we’d have to do it in Grandma and Grandpa Carter’s basement in Royal Oak. Then you could only go in small circles. Or we might make it over to the Algonac High School and skate on the tennis courts or around the school parking lot. Still, lots of fun until you hit one of those gravel pebbles or someone yelled at you for skating on the tennis courts. 57 Contact information for this artist can be found on page 88.