The Neighbors Pond

When I was young, we had neighbors that lived across the street from us. Every year my friends dad would start the pond, as he referred to it. My friend was a figure skater and I hadn’t decided if I would be a figure skater or a hockey skater. One problem was girls didn’t play hockey back then. This was in the sixties and I didn’t know any girl that played hockey. The other problem was that I knew I wasn’t about to be a figure skater, as I was too darn clumsy. If it was today, I would’ve had to wear a helmet, and knee pads especially. Instead, now I have beat up looking knees and possible brain damage. Well, I can’t really say the brain damage is from skating but you never know. We would have so much fun, skating to “Oklahoma” and “The Sound of Music” tunes. My friend had the record albums of both. When we were eleven or maybe twelve, we would skate all day, some days. Then in the summer we would dance and act in “Oklahoma” and “The Sound of Music” and when we tired of that, we would look forward to skating weather and talk about that until we tired of that too and I would go home.

That frozen pond gave us so many hours and days of fun. I will hear of that friend on occasion, and I have driven by that house, where they lived from time to time. Good memories from childhood aren’t always so readily available. We always hated to see it thaw in the spring. Then we would move on to what was next. One year next was a move. We moved across town as mom had purchased a house from my aunt and uncle. I knew I would miss my friends and I was glad that I learned about skating and acting when we lived in that part of town. I could take that with me and I have. Well, I did. I haven’t skated or acted in many years now. It was fun as a kid and young teen.

The house wasn’t quite big enough, but we managed until mom could afford adding on to the house. We had a space for a large garden and it could be a frozen pond in the winter. We also had a lake close by that we considered our lake and it wasn’t far to a neighborhood skating rink. My mom drove us most places we wanted to go and then she would drop us off and come back later to pick us up. I remember one of my younger brothers pushing a chair around the rink when learning to skate. Mom said playing hockey could be dangerous though. I didn’t know what she was talking about until my first college game of hockey. I was just sitting there when all of a sudden the whole audience seemed to jump onto the ice. It wasn’t everyone but there were a lot of people that went on to the ice. The hockey players had fists flying and there was blood on the ice. Some of the people from the audience started to fight too, while some worked to break up the fights. I remember thinking I wouldn’t let my child play hockey.

Several years later, when my son was young, a friend asked why he wasn’t playing hockey. I let him know that not after what I saw at a hockey game as a young girl. It took him weeks to talk me into visiting the game again. Only with boys my sons age. They had helmets and padding and really could hardly move as they had so much gear on. I laughed and gave in as things had changed. He assured me that the whole audience would not be jumping in either.

My boy began skating and loved it. Then what I didn’t love was hockey taking over my life. He played hockey until he was in the 9th grade and when he asked to play tennis, rather than hockey I agreed. Tennis just couldn’t be as time consuming or expensive as hockey. I was right. Well, rackets probably cost close to what sticks were costing as he got older. My daughter played hockey with college girls when she was in the 9th grade. I thought that was great!! Since she was new to hockey that year, she was a wing and a very good player. Their coach quit after that year and the team didn’t continue playing together. Women’s hockey was new yet.

As an adult, my son started playing hockey again and he loves it. He is 43 now, and when he was in his 30’s he asked why I didn’t keep him in the game as he regretted ever leaving hockey. I think he blamed me for his quitting hockey and maybe it was me. I would never let them quit anything in the middle of a season, but this wasn’t the middle of the season and I thought maybe he was old enough to make the decision himself. And I was tired. He is my baby. I was raising two others. When 42, he and his partner had a baby girl and hockey has been set aside for now. I’m guessing that hockey may be her sport at some point. Maybe it will start on the frozen pond in their current yard.