What It Means To Be A Hockey Mom

First of all, hockey moms watch hockey! I was watching the local team in the playoffs today. They looked good in the beginning, and then there was a tie, and they went into overtime. Anyone's game! They lost to a team that hadn't been to the playoffs for over forty years!

The winning goal came from a senior. What an exciting win for him and his team! A great way to finish up his high school experience.

My son plays hockey at 47. He says he is in the old men's league. He is not the oldest. His team does well and is often advanced to the playoffs. I live about 3 hours from where he is playing, so I only see him if we are there when he is playing.

He has gotten into pickleball now and says he does well at pickleball because he played tennis in high school.

He decided not to play hockey after the ninth grade. After playing hockey since a young child. I was okay with it, even though he had asked me as an adult why I let him quit hockey. At the time, I asked if he was sure, and he said that he wanted to play tennis. Apparently, he didn't think that he could do both.

When he was done playing, his sister wasn't. They didn't have girls' hockey when she was growing up, but she was able to play with high school and college women. She loved it, and she was good, and everything went well until their coach quit and they were done.

There was never a time when I said that I missed that life. It really does take over. It is potlucks, drinking, hotels, and bundling up for both indoor and outdoor hockey. Buying new sticks as they get older. My son was breaking a stick almost every game before he quit.

I recently asked him how much sticks cost him. He said they cost 200-300. dollars, but they are guaranteed for a month. I'm sure glad I am not still responsible for hockey sticks.

My grandchildren are playing basketball and are in wrestling. None of my grandchildren have been involved in hockey. My kids may have gotten skating from me. I took them roller skating and ice skating when they were very small.

I would skate with them until they could skate circles around me backwards, then I knew I could trust them to skate without me.

When I was young, we had neighbors who lived across the street from us. Every year, my friend's 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 that girls didn’t play hockey back then.

This was in the sixties, and I didn’t know any girl who 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 were today, I would’ve had to wear a helmet and knee pads. 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 for me was a move. We moved across town as my 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 a young teen.

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 hockey game. 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 who went on to the ice. The hockey players had fists flying, and there was blood on the ice. Some people in the audience started to fight, while others worked to break up the fights. I remember thinking I wouldn’t let my child play hockey.

When my son was young, a friend asked why he wasn’t playing hockey. I let him know that he wouldn't be playing 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 son's 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.

So, that was the beginning of hockey for my children, and being a hockey mom for me. My kids are all big fans of the Wild, the Golden Gophers, and the Bulldogs in MN. I tend to keep up with the Wild and our local teams.