@KristenKP43 A story for you. When I was a kid, growing up in Winnipeg, there were only outdoor rinks in our community until I was about 13. Also, my parents were older. My Dad was 50 and my Mom was 40 when I was born. 1/25
They were at a point in their lives where they preferred to sit & sip coffee & read the newspaper over going out and throwing a ball with the kid, or teaching the kid to skate, or whatever. I was encouraged to read, which I still do, voraciously. 2/25
My Dad had injuries from WWII that affected his balance and caused some lingering pain in his leg which, no doubt, impacted his enthusiasm for sports, although he had been quite athletic when he was younger. 3/25
I saw figure skaters and thought they were so beautiful and graceful and I wanted to learn to figure skate. Some research revealed that the local figure skating lessons were at 6:30 am. This was a non-starter. 4/25
Girls couldn't play hockey. There were no girls' teams and the boys and the male coaches were not having girls on the boys' teams. There was a ringette team and I could have joined that, except the team was mostly made up of the mean girls who picked on me at school... 5/25
And their parents were the coaches, so there was no recourse if they were just as horrible on the ice. I declined. 6/25
The rinks, when there was no hockey game going on, were dominated by pick-up games of shinny, played by boys, and they did not want girls on the ice trying to learn to skate. They would shoot pucks at us until we left. 7/25
So, I arrived at adulthood a pretty poor skater. I had done very well rollerskating in my teens, hanging out at the roller-rink and even getting into dancing on rollerskates. But ice is a different creature... 8/25
I had watched my husband play hockey through high school and university. Then I was watching our kids play. And it seemed like so much fun! So, at 32 I signed myself up for the CanSkate program at our local community centre... 9/25
I was the only non-teaching adult on the ice. My kids and all my kids' hockey team-mates were also in the program and all their parents were in the stands, watching, as I fell down over and over and over... It was quite humbling. 10/25
But, I was determined. By the end of the winter, I could skate forwards, backwards, stop, do cross-overs, and even spin. The next fall I signed up for a women's industrial league team. The first game was the first time I had been on the ice in hockey gear and hockey skates. 11/25
It was very humbling all over again. I did a lot of falling down. A lot of people yelling at me because I wasn't very good at it. But, over the season, I got better. I played two years with them. 12/25
By the end of the second year our oldest was old enough to babysit her siblings. We knew some couples who both played hockey and they were also troubled by the fact that they were playing on alternate evenings and didn't get to spend recreational time together. 13/25
We formed a co-ed hockey team and entered in the men's league at the U of M. We were the only co-ed team for years. The guys on the other teams gave the women on our team a hard time. But they gave the guys on our team an even harder time. 14/25
They tried to belittle them for playing with "girls". They called them many vulgar homophobic slurs. And we had at least one gay guy on our team, so I felt especially horrified for him. 15/25
But our team was a tight group. It was not just hockey, it was date night for the couples on the team. After the game we would often go to the nearby Boston Pizza and hang out together. 16/25
We played together for about a decade. Eventually my husband's job involved so much travel that he couldn't commit to being there for games and it didn't make any sense to continue. 17/25
This was shortly before we moved to Alberta. My first year or two here I had no friends and no community. The universities were not hiring because of PC cuts to higher education, so I was relegated to full-time homemaker. 18/25
I drove our youngest daughter to all her hockey games and got to know the parents of her team-mates, but we had very little in common. But finally I met a woman who said, "You play hockey? You should come out to shinny on Friday..." And I did. 19/
From playing shinny I eventually got invited to join an actual team in a league. So now I play with the Ladies Daytime Hockey League. My youngest joined our team after she aged out of community hockey. 20/25
My oldest played with us while she was living with us during a transition period in her life, between jobs and finding a new direction. Playing with both my girls was fabulous. It was magical. Like the Sedin brothers, we knew where each other was on the ice all the time... 21/25
It was tremendously exciting to have that connection with them, making plays, passing the puck, and being able to talk about the game after. A real camaraderie. 22/25
Now older daughter lives in Winnipeg again, and younger daughter has a real adult office job. So I am on my own. But the team is a great group of women. The league is fantastic. This week, for example, we collected items for a "purse drive". 23/25
This is where we collect items - gloves, scarves, personal hygiene, make-up, and treats like hot chocolate, facial masks, etc and donate them in a new purse or backpack to the local women's shelter. 24/25
Because so many women leave their home with nothing when they flee domestic violence. This league is a tremendously kind and supportive group of women who look outside their own stuff to do good things for women who are facing big challenges. They are my community. 25/25
