It seems the King Midgets spent an afternoon doing test laps. However, the demonstration was cut short when oil was leaking all over the floor. Management realized it would take a very long time to clean up the surface to ready the floor for roller skaters. Roller skating took place on Saturday afternoon, and again on Wednesday and Friday evenings. The dreams of grand prix glory at Dixie Arena saw its checkered flag before it even got started.
Roller-skating was very popular. The Dixie Roller Skating Club held its 1st. Annual Roller Follies on November 1, 1952. Headline skaters from the Toronto Roller Skating Club Irene Ferris and Rod McDonald, the Eastern Canadian Pairs Champions, thrilled the large crowd with an excellent demonstration. The Follies opened with a number performed by 12 local youngsters dressed as Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This was followed by a musical demonstration of Rag Mop. One of the highlights of the evening was a precision solo performance by Dixie’s own Carol Rohring.
Dixie management realized roller-skating could become a lucrative business during the summer months and tried everything to attract skaters, including providing free skates for everyone. On June 4, 1953 the management decided to provide a bus service to the arena. At that time, service in the Township was limited to a single Gray Coach Line bus going from Lakeshore north on Centre Street (Hurontario).
Dixie Arena’s bus started at 7 p.m. every Friday night, travelled east on Dundas, south on Dixie Road, west on Lakeshore to Centre Street, north to Cooksville and east on Dundas to the arena. “All you need to get where you can be seen and hail the driver”, state the advertisements. As a result of the bus service, area residents started to petition for a regular bus service and soon an application was made by Joe Monks to the Ontario Highways Transportation Department to provide a service from Lakeshore north to Burnhamthorpe on Centre Road. One bus each hour would provide service every half hour northbound and southbound.
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