MACOMB – Chances are if you lived in Macomb, whether for one year or all your life, you attended (or had) a birthday party at Skateland, spent a snowy Sunday afternoon skating around the rink chasing after your friends, took part in the 'famous' New Year's Eve 'lock-ins' or made sure you were there every Friday night to see everyone - and be seen – while skating under the disco lights to the Bee Gees (and waiting for that special someone to ask you to join them for a couples skate).
From 1969 to 2008, Marge and Gene John were 'parents' to hundreds of McDonough County-area (and beyond) children of all ages as the owners and operators of Macomb's Skateland on Shady Lane.
Their daughter, Terri (John) Burnham, was going into ninth grade when her parents built the rink. So, what was it like spending your teen years at one of the most popular places in town? Burnham recently sat down with The Community News Brief for a trip down memory lane and 'growing up at Skateland.'
"When mom and dad opened Skateland, for me it wasn't as exciting as it was for my brother and sister, who were 12 and 11, at the time," Burnham remembered. '"My sister, Julie, was over the moon about my parents owning Skateland … she was the first one to have a birthday there.
"I have to say though that I learned to appreciate the business and what it did for the community," she adeded. "I can't tell you the many times I was with mom and dad later in their lives, when they were at MDH and Wesley Village, and their caregivers were their 'Skateland kids.' Those caregivers were so appreciative of what they gave back to their community and they loved taking care of mom and dad. They were celebrities in their eyes."
Burnham is now the lone survivor of her immediate family, and the one who, along with her sister-in-law, Lori, and nieces and nephews, can continue to tell the 'Skateland' tales. Marge passed away in February 2025, while Gene passed away in 2022. Her sister Julie died unexpectedly in 2024, and her brother, Greg, died in a tractor accident in 2018. "Skateland has really been a neat thing for our family legacy," Burnham shared.
"And so many kids considered mom and dad a part of their family, so even though they're gone, along with my brother and sister, I still get to hear about them nearly everywhere I go."
While Burnham occasionally 'hung out' at Skateland, she, along with her best friend, Terra (Chenoweth) Litchfield, Terra's sister, Lori, and Terri's sister, Julie, were known as the 'Skateland Girls' or 'Skateland Sisters' as the quartet all worked together at the snack bar.
"My brother had a big crush on Lori, so we all begged her to go out with him," Burnham recalled with a laugh. "She finally did, and they ended up getting married right out of high school and were married over 40 years when Greg died."
While the 'Skateland Sisters' were busy selling sodas and snacks indoors, Greg was running a go-kart track behind the rink and during the holidays, he and Gene sold Christmas trees from the Skateland parking lot. Later, Greg's and Julie's kids worked at the rink, with Burnham's niece, Hayley (John) Dobson, during her college years at WIU, served as Marge's right-hand woman and ran the college parties at the rink.
Prior to owning Skateland, Gene sold Prudential insurance and Marge worked as a secretary at Wilson School, while also keeping the John house in order. The Johns were the most well-known entrepreneurs behind Skateland; however, what many people might not know is that when the business opened at 201 Shady Lane in October 1969 (and in a brand-new building), it was a partnership between the Johns and four others (Leroy Brown, John Brown, Lindy Powell and Duane Clugston).
According to Burnham, her dad and the other men were having coffee and during the course of the discussion, one of them said they needed to come up with something for the youth to do in Macomb.
Someone threw out of the idea of a skating rink, and just like that, Macomb's Skateland was born. Over the years, the Johns bought out the other partners and were the sole owners until they sold it in 2008.
"Even when they owned it with others, mom and dad were the face of Skateland.
My mom was the manager, and eventually, she became the backbone of the rink because my dad started racing horses in the Quad Cities and St. Louis, so he was gone a lot,' Burnham shared. 'My parents were both amazing people who really cared about their business, but it was my mom who held the skating rink together when my dad got into the horse business."
Burnham has numerous fond memories of her times at Skateland, but the best memories for her were from her first year of teaching third grade in Mt.
Sterling in 1978 and taking her class of 13 to Macomb for a day of skating on a Saturday afternoon. As part of her Skateland gig when she was attending Western Illinois University, Burnham drove the Skateland bus on weekends, picking up kids in Bushnell, Laharpe and other small towns and bringing them to the rink for a day of fun. Burnham later borrowed that bus to give her students the opportunity to go to Macomb for the day to skate, which was a first for many of them due to economic circumstances.
"The kids were so excited to go,' she said with a smile.
Burnham, who later served as the principal at St. Paul School in Macomb and later as a fourth-grade teacher at the parochial school, also referred back to days at Skateland when she, along with her parents, hosted a skating party for many years for the entire St.
Paul parish. She also used her bus-driving skills (and the Skateland bus) to take St. Paul students to events at Western.
Another Macomb woman who also has fond memories of the Johns and Skateland is Laura Leezer, senior vice president at Clock Tower Community Bank, a Division of Morton Community Bank, spent many a Friday night (and day) at Skateland under the Johns' watchful eyes.
"It was all so positive and I miss it so much! Marge and Gene were like my second set of parents. We would go every Friday and carpool there with other friends, and we'd arrive, Gene and Marge would greet us with big smiles," Leezer shared. "We were safe there, and my parents were confident that we'd be looked over with love and care. They knew that the Johns were a loving and respected family in our community and felt really good about having their children spend so much time there."
Leezer and her friends were in grade school when they started going to Skateland every Friday evening, and sometimes during the weekend at one of the 'matinee skates.' Her love of skating and Skateland didn't end with her childhood … during her college years, Leezer and her friends would hit Skateland to skate the night away as part of fundraiser events, and she and her brother, along with their own families, always made it a point to go to Skateland when they got together.
"There are so many fun memories. We were never disappointed after a night at Skateland," she added.
'You knew everyone who was there and you knew you were going to have fun, and when my brother would come back with his family, we'd go out there. It was a given. And my kids remember Skateland, so they have their own memories. It was just good, clean, safe fun.
"Even as an adult, I've been known to put on Terri's skates and skate around her kitchen," Leezer said with a laugh.
Besides skating, the rink featured an arcade (including the game known as "Big Bertha" where kids could redeem their tickets at Marge's trinket counter); scores of birthday parties were hosted at the rink; disco dancing lessons were all the rage in the 1970s; roller derby came about, and skate nights weren't complete without the limbo contest and numbers game, Burnham pointed out.
Through it all, the Johns loved everything about owning Skateland and what it meant to the community.
"They were very loving and kind people whose lives were complete by being the people they were for, and to, the children of Macomb," Burnham said. "So many people still come up to me and tell he how much my parents meant to them as children. Everyone knew Gene and Marge John. A lot of kids might have come from homes that weren't that great and mom and dad helped them a lot. They went beyond what most people would do in business. They loved the kids as much as the kids who loved them back."
