A Sort of Homecoming

Last night, I finally stepped back on the ice in full hockey equipment. Some of my gear was certainly showing its age, as it was getting pretty worn even before it was packed away into a sterlite time capsule and buried in the crawl space under our house years ago. But it was only a skate and shoot, so no harm, no foul. Tony and I got drawn back by Carolyn and Peter, who took up hockey a while back and have become proper evangelists for the sport. I dunno if I have the urge to actually play again, but the s&s was at Ice Oasis at Redwood City, the same place we had the Saturday night pickups all those years ago. Remember those? (Or maybe you don't because I'm pretty sure I wasn't blogging in those days.) Every Saturday night, a core group of us hit this pickup game there at midnight, skated till we fell over, and then went out to breakfast at three or so in the morning. It really did kill the whole weekend, but it was great. So great, Tony and I scheduled our wedding and honeymoon in such a way as to only miss one. And that's what I remember when I think of Ice Oasis. So last night, as I sat there in my somewhat fitting gear watching the end of the game before, I kept reminding myself it wasn't going to be like that. I can measure my time off from hockey in years, not days, and I wasn't even sure I could make the step down onto the ice without falling. So I let everyone else go first. And stepped down tentatively and awkwardly, like a fawn trying to figure out how the knee joints work. And then I skated across like I always did. It was awesome. I'm no good mind you. I'm rusty and I'm out of shape enough to be winded by a short sprint down the ice. But I'm home. I can't wait for next Saturday.

Comments

[Don Giroux]

Great story! I took a few years off after high school and remember what it was like to get back on skates. Can't believe I missed that time. I now play 3 times per week and even developed a website for people to find pick up games. http://pickuphockeyfinder.com
Sure this is a bit of a plug for me but I've heard your story more than once in the past few months and it's so nice to be part of the reason someone got back on the ice.
Keep up the good work both on ice and with the blog.

Don Giroux
612-321-1899
http://pickuphockeyfinder.com
Minneapolis, MN