Our little one was turning seven and my thoughts were turning, as they often do, to my early childhood in the 1970’s.  I always love a good theme and I figured rollerskating would be a great seven/seventies themed birthday party.  When I was a kid I was fortunate enough to have had two birthday parties at this same roller rink.  Only in those days, they had up to two birthday parties at once all mixed in with “regular” skaters and you had your cake in one of the birthday rooms.  Now I was able to get the entire rink just for her and her whole first grade class.  Instead of asking the DJ for requests I just gave him my two-and-a-half-hour long disco iTunes playlist.  Pretty soon the great skating music of my childhood filled the rink once again.  KC and the Sunshine Band and Chic, my two favorite bands with the best disco hits, pulsed and thumped as I made my way around the rink.  The parents didn’t look bored and I was pleased to see so many skating, playing air hockey, or just grooving to the music and hanging out in the snack bar.  I may have done this party a little early, as most kiddos had never skated.  But what a fun time!  Kids fell and they survived.  I taught them the movements to “YMCA” and took turns spinning little girls in circles until we all got dizzy.  The place was ours and I was in heaven.  We had pizza, Dr. Pepper (such a no-no now) and the cutest/best-tasting gluten-free birthday cake ever.  It was iced with an old-school roller-skate, complete with toe stop, on a pink background with multi-colored shell swirls on the side.  The party favors read, “Thanks for rolling with me” and I think both the boys and the girls genuinely had a blast.  Apparently it is a trend at our daughter’s school to have only girl or only boy parties.  I am proud that we had a mix of kiddos there, all having a good time and learning to skate.  The sweetest thing for me was watching an adorable little boy with a head full of curls using his mother’s quarters to try and get my little one the stuffed wolf inside the toy claw machine.  I do not see how anyone ever wins those!  Shyly and triumphantly, two little boys presented the plush wolf to her and my heart cracked.  It was just so sweet and thoughtful!  The late American cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead once said, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.  Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  Here was this little boy who knew my daughter lived with wolf-hybrids and wanted to get her this prize.  The seventies were a lot about social and political change — in my opinion for the better.  It saw reforms for women in the workforce and “equality” for people of color.  It was a time when folks thought of others and the world.  I would have traded any gift for the thoughtfulness this little boy had shown my daughter, and thus my heart was renewed, skating back to the ’70’s.