The other evening, as I was digging around in a seldom used closet, looking for a pair of mittens that might fit me, I discovered something. Now, I did discover mittens, but they were a size not meant for adults. So the search continues on that front. But I found my skates.
I obviously haven’t used them much in recent years, since they were buried in the back of a closet. But there was a time when winter meant skating and hockey. That’s what we did. Pretty much every day. When we weren’t in school, we were on the ice, pretending to be our favourite players.
My memory of that time might be a little hazy. It has been more than a few years. But it seems like we started at the end of November and went until the end of March. In the fall we would clear the year’s growth of alders from a swamp, put a little dam across the brook and flood an area that would see use all winter as a skating rink.
We would be there every day until it got too dark. Eventually, we got the idea of running extension cords from a couple houses nearby so we could hang a flood light or two from the trees. Then it would become hard to get us out of there no matter how dark it got.
There wasn’t a huge concern about falling through the ice. The only real danger was near the brook where running water would keep it from freezing. But even if you did go through the ice, the entire pond was only a couple feet deep. So our parents would happily stick skates on our feet and boot us into the cold on a daily basis.
It must have been cold, because there was ice. But I can never remember ever feeling cold. We were too busy trying to score goals. Or trying to figure out what snowbank the puck was hiding in.
I haven’t skated on natural ice for years. In years like this, I’m not sure I’d want to. Yes, we get a few cold snaps, but we also seem to get rain every few days, which makes me a bit wary of outdoor ice. I’d still like to give it a try one of these days.
But no slap shots and no lifting the puck. You might hurt someone. Or worse, lose the puck. Then what do we do?
