It is amazing with every passing season a new sport starts and while I love this, since I am a sports fan, I find it tough to get into the start of a new season when one is just ending. For example, my beloved Yankees were in the Wrold Series, as yes they did win number 27, but hockey season started a little while ago and I haven't been able to "get into it" like I typically do since my heart was hoping that the Yanks would do it. Now that the Baseball season is officially ending today (with a Ticker Tape Parade), I can turn my attention to the sport that I literally grew up with.
When I was born, I was virtually born at a skating rink and not the ones you see on TV today but the good 'ole outdoor, parents shoveling the ice ones. I was born in Canada and my brother was 2 1/2 at the time and was a hockey player. We were at the rink every weekend watching him play. We then moved to Minnesota, Burnsville to be exact, and lived across the street from a pond and as Minnesota winters go the pond is frozen for quite some time. I guess as nature intended if I was going to spend that much time at the ice rink I might as well become a figure skater right? right! There we are the Flaten family all at the Ice Rink, my brother in his hockey pads and me in my skating outfits. So during those long Minnesota winters we would head to the pond for some skating which was great as there were a lot of kids our age on the street and a few Minnesota North Stars also!!!!! What is better than that??? We went to North Star games while living in Minnesota and became friends with Dino Ciccarelli, Neal Broten, Brain Bellows and Don Beaupre (since they were neighbors). Life was great!!!
We eventually moved to NJ and the North Stars went to Dallas. I had decided to leave them as "My Team" and try to find a new team. My parents bought season tickets to the Devils and we had been going as a family of 4 for about 10 years. We got to see Lord Stanley, meet and skate with the players and eventually call them "My New Team"
Let's jump to today. My brother and I are heading back to the rink but not for either of us to go skating but to go to one of those nice rinks this time, indoors, new and comfy. We are going to see our team the NJ Devils tonight!!!!! I love this game!!!
1 comment:
Even though, being a southerner, I obviously wasn't raised on hockey...I love it like I was! It really is the best sport. The speed, the skill and the toughness are all things I think you can only really appreciate seeing it live. It just doesn't really come across on tv.
Anyway, I'm just glad we have hockey in the south now (even though many people believe it doesn't belong here) so I can raise my kids on it!
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