One of the cool things about being a reporter is that you get a sneak peek of new facilities when they open.
Trust me, the Buck Hurley Youth Center’s Xrkade is gonna be one hot ticket.
I’ve visited three times now, twice with son Andrew, who’ll be 12 this summer.
I can’t think of anything he’s been more excited about lately than the Xrkade. I can’t think of a better way to honor Buck Hurley, who loved kids, and who loved life.
I know now I’ll never again have to beg Andrew to go to the Y with me.
The first day we went, after I interviewed Executive Director Sandy Flowers, I asked Andrew to go back with me, so I could get his take.
“Just the two of us? Nobody else?” he asked, leaping off the sofa.
My stock with him went up quite a few points that afternoon.
Andrew is like me, an indoor person, but he immediately took to these “exergaming” video games.
He jumped onto the Dance Dance Revolution platform. He boxed and felt like Rocky.
“This is really good!” he exulted.
He loved the snowboarding.
“Man, this is really cool,” he said.
It was amazing how quickly he picked up on everything. I had no idea what any of the buttons on the control pads did.
I may do Dance Dance Revolution and kickboxing, and maybe boxing, but I’m gonna stay away from that ATV course. The first time I rode one ó onscreen ó I kept running into barriers and once, I fell off the motorcycle and it ran over my head. Not pretty.
But Andrew did fine.
As Van Halen’s “Panama” blasted and the disco lights flashed, I could tell the Xrkade would be a huge success for the Y.
If my son can work up a sweat, any kid will love it.
When we left ó OK, when I finally dragged him out of there ó he said that the boxing was his favorite game.
“That is a really good workout,” he said of Xrkade. “It gets your blood pumping. But I think I pulled a muscle.”
Contact Susan Shinn at 704-797-4289 or sshinn@salisburypost.com.