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ROTTERDAM
Organist bids rink goodbye; roller skaters sing his praises
BY STEVEN COOK Gazette Reporter

Given and Frances Hynds began roller-skating in their younger years. She was 60. He was 65.
It was fun. There was camaraderie. There was also organist John Wiesner.
He’s the one who played the music that everyone glided to.
“John was a big part of coming,” Frances Hynds, now 85, said Tuesday evening at Rollarama on Hamburg Street. “The organ music just added to the ambiance of the whole thing. “It was more than skating. It was friendship.” The Hyndses were among several dozen on hand to send Wiesner off on his last night playing his live organ music for the skaters. It was his final rink performance after 38 years. He once played both Tuesday and Sunday nights. But about 10 years ago that dropped to Tuesdays only. An aging and shrinking crowd no longer made a live organist cost effective.
   Prior to Tuesday evening’s skate, Wiesner, of Clifton Park, worked his way through well-wishers, posing for pictures and giving his thanks.
   The 64-year-old retired electrical engineer said he had mixed emotions about leaving. The common thing he heard Tuesday night was they wished he could continue.
   “They wish I was still doing it,” he said. “I am still doing it, though in a different place.”
   And in a place where skating would be difficult. The father of three and grandfather of seven plays every Sunday at the Watervliet United Methodist Church.
   When Wiesner took his familiar spot behind the organ, the skaters hit the floor. Most were in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
   Some avid skaters would come from Massachusetts and Syracuse to skate to Wiesner’s music, Rollarama assistant manager Rector McIntyre said.
   Some people would just come and listen to him play.
   About halfway through the evening, Wiesner would take a brief break.
   “Everyone would sit down too, because they didn’t want to skate to the other music,” McIntyre said. “They’d all take a break with him.”
   During a break in Tuesday night’s skating, the skaters presented Wiesner a plaque showing their appreciation.
   Glenn and Marie Hardin were among the youngest in the group at 49 and 47. They’ve skated for a few years, making their way up from Greene County mostly in the winter for exercise.
   They once requested the Conga, a song often played at other rinks. Wiesner wasn’t familiar with it, but made his own version when they brought him an example.
   He played it every time he saw them, including Tuesday.
   The Hardins glided around the rink, kicking up their skates to the music, Marie’s skates with pink pompoms on the toes.
   “It’s a feeling,” Marie Hardin said of the organ experience. “The skating doesn’t change, but it’s a sense of family. Everybody knows everybody.”
   That’s likely going to change, she said.
   “John’s part of the reason we make the trip here,” she said. “Who’s going to play the conga for us now?”