As another tangent, it's a great example of an activity that became very popular for a time and then almost completely faded away for no obvious reason. (If any

As another tangent, it's a great example of an activity that became very popular for a time and then almost completely faded away for no obvious reason. (If anything, paved rail trails--which are often a great place to inline skate--are much more common today than they were during skating's heyday.)