Fredell Belle said she remembers when she first started skating at the Glenwood and Tinley Park roller rinks in the ’80s — the $5 ladies night, the line out the door, the music, the crowd, the people, the energy and her time spinning records as “DJ Free.”
Belle said these skating rinks saved her. They gave her a place to be, keeping her out of trouble.
“They really did,” she said. “I could have been in a lot of things, but I just wanted to skate every day of every week.”
But even more so, she said she did not know what the Chicago south and southwest suburbs would be without these rinks and their owners, Raymond and Margaret Quitter.
“They gave us a place to be on Saturday nights, and it didn’t matter if we were young or old, black or white, it did not matter,” she said. “It was a camaraderie. I mean, it was universal. Every race, every culture, in this thing we come together, and Margaret and Ray brought that for us in the south suburbs. Their legacy is unmatched.”
Raymond and Margaret Quitter, former national and international competitive skaters, met at a roller rink during a skating competition in the 1940s and ’50s, according to their son, Carey Westeerg-Quitter.
The couple brought their shared passion for skating to the south and southwest suburbs of Chicago, owning six rinks at one point. They even turned a Markham bowling alley and a Tinley Park square dancing hall into skating floors in the late 1960s.
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“They had a love for this thing” said Belle, who now takes care of Raymond at his assisted living facility, Anthem Porter Place. “You do what you love and apparently Ray did that.”
Five of those rinks have been sold, and only the Tinley Park Roller Rink, now owned by Westeerg-Quitter, still has the Quitter name. The Glenwood rink closed in 2025 due to structural damage and was sold to Curtis and Ramona Pouncy, who own The Rink in Chicago, according to Westeerg-Quitter.
Westeerg-Quitter aims to keep the place a time capsule, he told the Southtown Thursday while sitting on one of the old rink picnic tables at an event celebrating the rink’s legacy.
He said he remembers the rink’s peak in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, when disco music brought bright styles, flared blue jeans and big hair. He helped Margaret with the Tinley rink while Raymond ran the Glenwood rink, he said.
The family purchased the Tinley rink in 1965, after it was built as a square dancing hall in 1953, according to Westeerg-Quitter. The family built the Glenwood rink in 1976, he said.
The original Tinley rink floor, handmade in tongue and groove style, remains, along with the layout of concessions, games and a party area. He said when they first opened, Harlem was a gravel road, and the rink was surrounded by just a few businesses.
More than 60 years later, Westeerg-Quitter said he has seen three generations of families skate the Tinley Park Roller Rink floors. He said young children often grew up to work as rink employees, and customers still tell him they met their partner or had their first kiss at the rink.
“Just to see the community, just bubbling, change and grow, but yet we’re still in the nucleus here; we’re in the center,” he said. “That’s special, just to carry on the legacy of my mom and dad and all the hard work they put in, what we did, it means a lot.”
Westeerg-Quitter, from Homewood, said he was formally adopted by the couple when he was 21 after he met Margaret teaching tennis lessons. He said they taught him to use the rink to support the community, with low prices and special events such as offering free skate times for children with autism and their families once a month, which he still does.
“Marg and Ray, they were very open arms, they help everybody, anybody, very loving, very supportive,” he said. “We kind of blended our talents and everything just worked out beautifully.”
Margaret died in 2020, and banners hang in the entrance halls of the Tinley Park rink honoring her memory, along with her skating awards. Westeerg-Quitter said he remembers her as a smooth, graceful skater, while Raymond was a stronger, more physical skater.
Raymond could not attend a Porter Place event celebrating his legacy June 18, but other residents had the place to themselves that day, where they danced on the side of the rink to songs from the 1970s, and family and friends skated. A Girl Scout troop also attended.
Bruce Boonstra, whose wife works for Porter Place, said he had not skated in 30 years, but he held his son’s hands firmly that day, teaching him how to skate.
Brandy Dinto, of Crete, who was with the Girl Scout troop, said the last time she skated was when she was pregnant with her daughter Annastasia, who she skated with that day.
Westeerg-Quitter said it’s sad see so many rinks close over time, which he attributed to decreased popularity and increased costs, such as property taxes and liability insurance.
He said he is not financially worried about the Tinley Park Roller Rink because his family paid the mortgage off early and does not pay overhead fees.
“It’s hard,” he said. “But popularity goes in cycles. … Skating is still popular. I’ve seen it on TikTok and I feel like its coming back, especially to the Chicago area.”