To:THE GRINCH WHO STOLE XMAS:time to tile the kitchen floor!

[John Dillon]

This disturbing news that Vans Skatepark, Potomac Mills, is closing even sooner....or even at this time of year reminds me of the greed and insincerity of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas! This new owner of Vans...Van Heusen Clothing Co?... will NOT be getting any of my holiday shopping dollars and I was planning to purchase several new shirts for myself. I thought that the economy was doing so much better? All the economic indicators are looking positive! This is not only the season when most skaters seek indoor sites in which to hone their skills and get their kicks due to the cold temps and wet/icy weather but it is also the season of GOODWILL to all. Us skaters have supported Vans indoor skatepark since it opened...I often made the 180-mile roundtrip just to skate there. Hell, the new Springfield interchange shortened my commute from a 3-4 hr drive(after work in rush-hour traffic) to a 1-1.5 hr drive...and that's from work, which is 'only' 40 miles away. I feel as if myself and all the skaters who enjoyed Vans so much are being kicked in the *alls and stabbed in the @ss...all at the same time! Vans was making a profit, I thought, or was corporate not reaching unrealistic profit goals?? Or, is there an underlying reason that Vans is being shut...like the discovery that the Vans skate decks are being made in China and that this crappy product is leading to a boycott of all Vans products, including its skatepark? I'm hoping that someone else will step up and take over the skatepark operations(how about it, Prince William County Parks & Recreation.?)....they can close the skate shop....everything was too expensive for me there, anyways. Or is the real culprit the owner of The Mills Mall Corporation....are they jacking up the price of the lease to an extortionate rate and virtually chasing Vans away and making Vans close early to cut losses?? I guess we'll never know until the real story comes out via book and a TV movie gets released on pay-per-view. Just when I am recuperating from an injury and I was looking forward to skating Vans again....now I will only have memories of myself skating in the pool and sess-sliding the banked walls and vocal sliding the concrete floor between the bowls and street areas, and doing the death-in and christy in the lil bowl. The Vans Skate Park, Potomac Mills, is/soon to be known as: was a place where I have met many cool people from all over....even where many cool spectators with whom I've spoken, rad sessions have taken place, groms-turned-superman and superwomen have developed before my eyes over time....many awesome events occurred: Surfrider's Longboard & Vintage Day, Modifed Banked Slalom, Flatland Slalom outside the fence, Checkers' Series Bowl & Street Contests, Mountain Dew Contest, Oldschool Wednesday Night Jams. The Grand Opening way back when(Alzheimer's is kicking in this morn) was a blast...good friends, good food, good drinks, great skating. This is a place where I felt much younger than my actual chronological age. Yea, I prefer concrete skateparks and I prefer skating outdoors but I also enjoyed Vans Skatepark indoors because it was the best indoor skatepark I've ever skated and I've skated a bunch of indoor parks. Plus Vans was a huge skatepark...there was tons of space....not all cookie-cutter, tightly-packed playground-style. I would like to be able to roll around for a last farewell session but my friends may have to do that for me if my knee is still too painful when I try to skate. I will miss the Vans employees who have almost become like family and all the skaters and their parents and the spectators, some of whom, didn't skate, but who would often stop by the fence and say hello when they saw me near the bench next to the fence by the big bowl...as they were passing by the skatepark on their way to/from the mall. Maybe I'll be able to afford those Rowley's I always wanted...I hope they will be on sale....then again....maybe I'll just boycott all the mall stores and the Vans skate shop? Right now I am sad, I feel betrayed....I know I've been putting it off for awhile.....everytime I think about doing it, I instead decided to go skate.....and often I went to Vans.....so now Vans is telling me that: John: it's time to tile the kitchen floor....................................you will enjoy my new kitchen floor next time you come over! VANS SKATE PARK, POTOMAC MILLS R.I.P.