Carpentering for the Carpenter

My earliest memories of hockey is Ted (my twin) and I playing on the "unintentional pond" in the yard where the water tank for the cows accidently (on purpose) ran over. One of us had brother Bill's "real stick" and the other's was made out of a board and a poplar branch! Later on we graduated to the river just down the hill where Dad had cleaned of a patch of ice with the tractor and loader. One winter the river flooded over the ice and snow and refroze, making a perfect skating rink about half a mile long! The church young people came and enjoyed it and a roaring fire on shore one evening. Early another spring the slough out behind the barn filled and then froze again. We hand some heighbour boys over after school for lots of fun.

At school there was a shortage of water but the County hauled in water to make a rink when we were in Junior High. Our final year at that school included the luxury of boards. We had to learn how to play all over again because before that the last thing we wanted to do was shoot the puck off into the snow bank and have to retrieve it!

The first organized hockey I played was at Briercrest Bible College where I was in the "Junior League" which included anyone who wanted to play. Since then I've played a bit here and there. Last summer I played goal for the only time, and it was also my only time to play roller hockey(no ice). It was in Kalispell, Mt. and my twin brother who has always played goad was in the other net. Fortunately, most of the good shooters were on my team!

Indoors hockey takes two forms. One is watching it on TV, something we Canadians have done since the invention of the "magic box." But not this year because of the NHL lockout.

The other form of indoor hockey is the table game. I first saw some neighbour boys play it on the "Munro" hockey game back in the late 50's. The players were wooden pegs with wire "sticks" jutting out from their sides. When the one playing the game pulled a lever all 5 of his players would rotate, shooting the marble puck. A few years later Ted and I got a more advanced game for Christmas. The players could be moved up and down the ice and be rotated individually. And they were shaped and paited like real NHL players. We enjoyed that game for years. I think it's still around the old farm house somewhere!

Now, for his 6th Christmas, I got our grandson, Thomas, a nice plastic table hockey game. The last couple of evenings, He and Grandpa have had fun facing off against each other! It's exciting being all six players on the team at the same time. And I still had to be the announcer, giving the "play by play." But Thomas caught on fast. He was soon winning. And then he started doing the announcing too. When he succeeded, he knew how to shout out: "He scores." So at least in one Canadian household, our national winter sport is still very much alive and well!