Reasons We Love Hockey Part 6
June 17, 2007 by Schnookie
The 6th in our 118-part series.
It being Fathers’ Day, IPB would like to take a moment to pile on the schmaltz while examining one of the reasons we love hockey. Our father passed away 14 years ago, and was not much of a sports fan himself, so we can’t pull out that old trope of baseball writers everywhere and wax poetic about drowsy summer afternoons spent playing catch with the old man. But we can instead sing the praises of hockey and how it is…
The Backdrop For Our Friendship As Adults With Our Mother.
We were both teenagers when our father died, and although we had always been close with our mother, what we discovered in the months following the loss of our dad was that we were in uncharted water with Boomer, who was then just “Mom”. We found out that, beyond being the provider of maternal nurturing we had always known and loved, she was also an actual human being. A human being with the same sense of humor we had, the same interests we had, the same irreverent, giggly, silly approach to life we had. She was, in short, cool. And how did we find this out? Through our shared discovery of and immediate obsession with hockey.
One random evening in October of 1995, the three of us were gathered around the television, flipping through a zillion channels all airing nothing but boring spew. We stumbled across a Rangers-Flames game and decided to leave it on. Mark Messier scored his 500th goal that game, and we were all hooked. Within a matter of weeks we had purchased the Center Ice package, sworn off going to movies, and ceased eating out. Hockey had become our lives. And “Mom” revealed to us, as we gobbled up every snippet of hockey information we could find, that she was just as fascinated as we were. Every day we’d come home from work or school to find she’d purchased a new book of hockey history, or had ordered a new media guide from some random team, or had picked up a pack of hockey cards for us to open and giggle over. She developed a crush on Mike Richter, and started pasting pictures of him up on our kitchen cabinets. She wore a hockey sweater as a winter coat to her job as a high-school librarian, and the Senior jock boys used to drop by her office to talk hockey with her. Right before our eyes she became… our peer. We were suddenly equals. And she was the coolest person we knew.
The final step in her transformation from Mom to Friend was when she announced one day, “I don’t want you to call me ‘Mom’ anymore. I want a cool nickname. I want you to call me ‘Boomer’.” Done, and done!
After her freshman year of college (and while Pookie was still in high school), Schnookie had taken a year off, moved back home, and saved up a ton of money while living rent free. When the year-long hiatus was over, she had two choices: use the moneys to take Pookie back to Europe to re-create the trip our grandmother had taken us on, or buy season tickets for the three of us to one of the local NHL teams. There was no question: we wanted to spend the money on something we could enjoy with Boomer, too. So we did a little research, decided the Meadowlands would be the easiest for us to get to for games on worknights, and opted for Devils tickets. And the rest is history.
So when we reflect back on our experiences as hockey fans, we have a lot of fond memories. But the ones that are most important to us are the countless hours of laughter and fun we’ve shared with Boomer.
Oh, this is so nice.
Wow, that’s so cool.
Kudos to Boomer.
Boomer says, “::Blushes::”
She’s very shy that way!
Yay for Boomer!
Out of 6 in my family, only my baby brother (21) follows hockey at all. We’ll sit together at family dinners and put up an invisible wall, just to talk about how much Giguere should be re-signed for, or what to do about lineups if Teemu retires.
Anyway, a great tribute piece. We love ya, Boomer!
Earl, Boomer just said, “Tell Earl, ‘thanks’. He can stand in front of me at hockey games.” That’s quite the compliment!
We have been told by members of our extended family that when we get going talking hockey, it’s like a foreign language. Probably because it’s littered with toaster children and raccoon wives and the like, but it sounds like you and your brother are very familiar with that phenomenon, too!
The only one I can talk hockey with is my lovely twin, Flutter aka Chica aka Bratster (told you she’s got better [and more] nicknames than I have). Too bad she’s a Rangers fan. Mom and dad row and just don’t get anything that even comes close to having anything to do with land.
Mom and dad row and just don’t get anything that even comes close to having anything to do with land.
Are they astronauts? Pilots? Pirates? Sea people? :)
;_; that’s so nice.
Mom and dad row and just don’t get anything that even comes close to having anything to do with land.
But they’re sports people!
At most I can only talk to my cousin, who still wears a look of disbelief if I talk hockey with him. I get looks from my friends and my parents think i’m watching hockey because I found myself a boyfriend.
it’s the Asian thing I think ._.
i forgot to add - can I steal Boomer :X?
Earl, Boomer just said, “Tell Earl, ‘thanks’. He can stand in front of me at hockey games.” That’s quite the compliment!
Aw, that’s nice. Tell her I’d switch seats with her if it became a problem.
(And that’s a compliment, too. I have never switched seats with anyone, though I am constantly a problem.)
I get looks from my friends and my parents think i’m watching hockey because I found myself a boyfriend.
Haha, I’m the opposite. People keep telling me to stop with all the hockey and find myself a boyfriend (short answer: no; long answer: no, boys my age are jerks)
I can talk to my sisters about hockey, but not really with them. They just humor me.
But compared to my friends and coworkers, it’s great. That’s just more indication of what a great family I have. They even keep their eyes out for “hockey stuff” they think I might need, even if they’re not sure what it’s for.
I’ve been thinking about my dad, of course, and he was never a huge sports fan. I didn’t realize the obsessiveness that real sports fans have until I started watching hockey.
He liked sports in general, but never said he couldn’t do something or be somewhere because a game was on. But when my sisters and I were growing up, he also didn’t avoid sports. Even as a 10-year-old, I thought my dad was the coolest because he would play catch with me even though I was a girl. (This was the 70’s. He was very modern.)
He took us to an Astros game once. I remember it very well, and I had a great time. I remember that Cesar Cedeno either had a home run, or a great catch to win the game. But it was more like going to an amusement park or the beach or something.
And once, he took me and my two sisters to a Houston Aeros game. Somebody at work had the tickets. I remember thinking we had to be 3 of about 20 girls in the whole arena. I think I was 9. It was so crazy! They flew around the rink and crashed into the boards. The referees would climb up the glass to avoid the players. The glass was only about shoulder high back then, apparently. We had no idea what was going on, but it was huge fun.
I never forgot that game and I brought it up a lot, thinking how great it was that a dad would take his three little girls to a hockey game. But I never thought of hockey as a sport to follow until I the Stars came to town.
Patty, those are wonderful stories about your dad. One of our real, overriding feelings about our father from our childhoods is that he was a great dad for little girls (which is a good thing, because he had three of them). He would play patiently with us however we wanted to, whether it was riding bikes, running around the yard, or dressing up our stuffed animals. And he never encouraged us to “act like girls” specifically. Which, uh, probably explains a lot about us, come to think of it!
Aw, that’s nice. Tell her I’d switch seats with her if it became a problem.
(And that’s a compliment, too. I have never switched seats with anyone, though I am constantly a problem.)
Earl, you just brought a tear to all of our eyes. The sentimentality at IPB is overwhelming today!
can I steal Boomer :X
You can’t steal Boomer until she takes my car into the shop for me… and buys netting for our blueberry bushes… and picks up dinner for me on Monday… hm… on second thought, no, you can’t steal Boomer! ;)
Schnookie, that’s exactly how my dad was when we were kids. I think he liked playing outside with us. Sometimes we’d shoot baskets with him, but we went through a phase where we were obsessed with playing catch. We invented many drills for throwing and catching. We thought a softball was too easy, so we worked with a baseball and we need Dad out there to help us elevate our skills.
Recently he has admitted that he was constantly terrified he was going to bean one of us, so he wasn’t enjoying it as much as we were. :D
long answer: no, boys my age are jerks
Haha wait two years and…nope, no, doesn’t really change all that much.
P&S, this is a really lovely entry, not to mention a great reason to love hockey. Boomer should be proud! And I have to thank you for reminding me that family bonding (even though I didn’t experience it to the extent that you did) has to go on my list as well. That is, once I get around to starting it.
:::tears::: My dad died when I was four and my mom is equally as amazing as Boomer. She never quite got the whole sports thing but she tried for me and that’s almost as good.
Aw, Heather — I’m so sorry to hear about your dad. There really aren’t enough special days to honor moms, though, are there?
Pookie, Schnookie: thank you for sharing your tribute to Boomer with us. She sounds like a truly amazing woman.
There really aren’t enough special days to honor moms, though, are there?
For our moms, no it doesn’t sound like there is! :-)
Awww that’s so sweet. I have to admit my sisters have no idea how hockey works and think that I’m wasting my life away.
Happy Pappy day! The one down under is at September.
Aw, Boomer sounds like a doll. And every day that Pookie and Schnookie are out in the world is a tribute to her mothering skillz. We should celebrate her and Heather B.’s mom every day.
You know the first time I read this post I was so dazzled by the Boomer love that I only kind of picked up on something very interesting….
Are you saying that you became hockey fans before you chose the Devils as your team? That’s really interesting to me. I can’t imagine thinking to myself “I want to spend thousands of hard earned dollars on season tickets. What team should I choose?”
Color me impressed. Your love is pure.
Haha wait two years and…nope, no, doesn’t really change all that much.
Craparooni.
I figure every day that my sister and I are around it’s a tribute to my parent’s skillz. They never forced us to be anything we’re not, but very subtly pushed us in the direction that would probably make the best of us. The only rules in the house were that we had to play a sport (we both picked hockey in the end, after trying out everything from rugby to swimming to cricket), be home for dinner and if we went out, be home before 12.
Given the hell we’ve given them over the years, I’m surprised they stuck with us. We’re both pretty spoiled, and I figure we’re a real fright when we gang up on them.
Here’s to our parents. Especially the single ones.
Boomer sounds awesome, you guys. (Not that she didn’t sound awesome before this post too, frankly). I think it’s so nice that hockey is such a family thing for you guys. It makes me all happy to think about it.
He liked sports in general, but never said he couldn’t do something or be somewhere because a game was on.
My dad is kind of like that as well. Or really, both my parents are like that. My father has season tickets to the Bills but it’s more for work and because he likes the whole experience of going to games. Hockey, they mostly watch if the Sabres are in the playoffs (only occasionally before then). And then my dad calls me after every game to talk which is nice.
At the end of the day they like playing sports more than watching. My dad coached my sister and me in T-Ball, taught us to throw a football (which I still suck at), play racquetball, squash, badminton, and ultimate, and basically did all the things he would have done with sons.
I love these tales of sportsy fathers lavishing sportsy love on their daughters! That really is just so wonderful — the dads who raise their daughters exactly the same way they would have raised their sons. Our dad was so not sportsy it almost hurt; he imparted to us all his tricks for avoiding athletic activity while growing up. We learned at his knee how to select the least vigorous gym options, how to become a team’s manager so you don’t have to actually play, and how to be comfortable with being the last kid picked for teams when sports are utterly unavoidable. It’s pretty inspiring, when you think about it. :P
Are you saying that you became hockey fans before you chose the Devils as your team? That’s really interesting to me. I can’t imagine thinking to myself “I want to spend thousands of hard earned dollars on season tickets. What team should I choose?”
I’m a little ashamed to admit that part of the thought process was that we’d be able to see the Rangers in person 3 times a season if we had Devils tickets. But seriously, clearly the Devils were the star by which we guide our ships, even without us knowing it. Plus, we’d just spent a year lapping up whatever hockey we could get on Center Ice, and then went to our first-ever game in person and realized how much more awesome it is live. So we knew we’d A) be able to watch any two teams on any given night and love it, and B) really be happy to see live hockey all the time. It was a safe investment. What we didn’t expect was to arrive for our first preseason game as pretty ambivalent Devils people, and within 5 seconds of the start of the game be madly in love with the team. It was just Meant To Be.
*yawn* Slow day at IPB, eh?
So we did a little research, decided the Meadowlands would be the easiest for us to get to for games on worknights, and opted for Devils tickets. And the rest is history.
Can you imagine how things would have ended up had you chosen Rangers, or worse yet, Flyers tickets instead?
It is a really slow day today! All morning it’s just been me and the chirping crickets in here!
Can you imagine how things would have ended up had you chosen Rangers, or worse yet, Flyers tickets instead?
I think of this surprisingly often, and have to suppress waves of nausea and shivers up and down my spine. It’s so terrible a thought! I like to tell myself it would have been impossible; we were drawn to the Devils without free will — it was preordained!
It was just Meant To Be.
I whole-heartedly believe that. Just like it was Meant To Be that I’d fall in love with a guy from Buffalo of all places. I’d never thought of Buffalo before that. Crazy the way life works.
Well, I’ve been around, but I was at the hospital so I never had time to post a comment.
I’mma make dinner now. See you in a few.
Well, I’ve been around, but I was at the hospital so I never had time to post a comment.
Mags, you were just busy all morning doing your best impersonation of a chirping cricket!
your best impersonation of a chirping cricket!
If it sounded like someone choking on a peanut, yeah, that was probably me.
I was totally wondering! I thought for a moment maybe a squirrel had gotten trapped inside one of the walls or something, so it’s quite a relief to know that was just you and a near-lethal peanut.
I’ve been in the chirping choir too… I was so moved by the post that I have been trying to dry my eyes enough to say hello. I lost my dad last summer so yesterday was one of the many ‘firsts’ of the year. Weird not going to see him with something that he, in turn, would think was a birthday gift or christmas (only the last few years - he had Alzheimers). So! I can really appreciate the maternal sentiments you have portrayed here! I too think my Mom is superkewl. She knows nothing about hockey but puts the game on for me when I visit.
Oh Sandra, I’m so sorry to hear about your dad! You have my deepest, deepest condolences.
Hey Mags, I was doing the laundry yesterday and as I folding one of my Threadless tees I remembered a vaugely interesting Threadless/hockey story. Sorry it’s sort of apropos of nothing this morning, but it’s so quiet here I figured I’d tell it.
Schnookie gave me the 12-month tee subscription for my birthday 2 years ago and one of the tees was called “What Ever Happened to Mission 5″ and looked like this:
What Ever Happened to Mission 5
Since it had a giant #5 on it, and we can’t look at numbers and not relate it to a hockey player, Schnookie and I immediately started referring to it as “Whatever Happened to Whitey in Outer Space”. (For those of you not intimately familiar with your Devils names and numbers… you will be once we start diarizing Devils games! Just kidding, what I mean is, Colin White wears 5.)
So there we were in Buffalo, knowing the Devils were staying in the same hotel as us. I was wearing my Whitey t-shirt when we set out for a day of exploring Buffalo (actually we really just stayed in and played boggle). When the elevator door opened it revealed an elevator full of Devils, Whitey included. In my head, it was all I could do to not point at the shirt and say, “Hey, Whitey, what did happen in outer space?” In reality, all I could do was marvel at how enormously and freakishly tall Mike Rupp is.
And that’s my story.
Oh, Sandra, I was typing my comment when yours came in so I didn’t see it at first. I’m so sorry to hear about your father.
I have to pipe up to add to Pookie’s story. It was mortifying being in that elevator, because the t-shirt has reached a point where we just assume everyone knows it features an astronaut Colin White. So I was positive Whitey was freaking out.
Sandra, sorry about your dad. *hugsmuch*
Pookie, that’s such a hilarious story! I wonder what sort of looks you’d've got if you’d actually said it… Also, I have that shirt! I’ve had a subscription to the threadless club since march 05, so I think I have most of them. Threadless = ♥
hey no worries - I’m one with the Dad thing now. And thank you for your kind thots. The point being is that Mom’s have kewl compensation methods dont they? My Ma now sits and watches the games with me and has been known to ask what is wrong with Crunchy’s ‘eye that wanders’.
My Ma now sits and watches the games with me and has been known to ask what is wrong with Crunchy’s ‘eye that wanders’.
HA! Boomer was the one who first coined that Crunchy has “two glass eyes”. Our mothers can be cruel in cutting down the men they don’t think are good enough for us, can’t they?
Ohhh… Mags, it’s like you’re a lost -ookie, too, with the t-shirts! Pookie and I both had concurrent “of the month” subscriptions, so we have to be careful to not be twinsies when we go out. I can only hope on those days when we both don our “Whatever Happened To Whitey In Outer Space” shirt, you’ve got yours on too! (We let our subscriptions run out just because we both have way too many t-shirts…)
My Ma now sits and watches the games with me and has been known to ask what is wrong with Crunchy’s ‘eye that wanders’
:^:::::::::::::::
More fodder for getting Schnookie’s goat! “Hey, is Crunchy’s glass eye wandering again? And why does he look surprised?”
Of course, she’ll only counter with, “Oh no, Zach’s stick just broke. How much does it cost again? Let’s ask Zach!” It’s a vicious circle, the teasing at IPB Manor.
‘of the month club’s? hmmm… sounds like a great idea for a thread here… bad trade of the month, best hit of the month, Crosbie-leg-muscle o’ the month, Pierre McGuire stupid-comment o’the game (couldnt be of-the-month in this instance).
and we can’t look at numbers and not relate it to a hockey player
So I’m not the only one, then? I can’t see speed limit signs on the highway without thinking of Jochen Hecht (#55).
HA! Gambler - too funny - and why dont players have the balls to wear #69
My Ma now sits and watches the games with me and has been known to ask what is wrong with Crunchy’s ‘eye that wanders’.
My mom used to work with children with learning disabilities and she keeps saying Crunchy looks like he’s one of her cleverer kids. But in a good way.
Schnookie, I still have the subscription. I thought about just letting is go, because I have a million and one shirts, and no one here gets the puns. But then all my friends pitched in and got it for my birthday. The threadless shirt I wear most often isn’t a subscription shirt though, it’s the Fish Tank one. When I still had braces it used to be the vampire orthodontics one(because there is nothing funnier than a dentistry student with braces working the graveyard shift in the ER wearing that shirt)
I had to get a combination lock for a storage area at work and was so annoyed when I learned it had a preset combo. I was like, “Crap! I’ll never be able to remember it!” Then I opened the packaging at discovered I had picked, out of all the locks in the bin at Lowe’s, the one that had a combo preset to “Gionta-Pando-Elias”. I had to admit I wouldn’t really have any trouble remembering that combo at all!
Speaking of Threadless, I went to Staples last week wearing my “Ask Me How I Became a Pirate” shirt and both people who helped me said, “Hey, I have that shirt!”
America has such kewl stuff…. here the only o’the’month stuff you get are utility bills.
here the only o’the’month stuff you get are utility bills.
Funny because it’s true.
I went and bought this one last week before all the toaster talk. I don’t know if I can wear it now…
Mags, that is such an awesome shirt! If I didn’t have so many t-shirts I would get it precisely because of all the toast talk around here! (And that’s too funny about the vampire braces shirt. I guess dental humor is it’s own thing, eh? I passed up the opportunity a few years ago to get a shirt that says “Donde Esta La Biblioteca?” and I’m kicking myself now.)
funny - love the toater T Mags. In a bit of perfect irony, last xmas I bought a t that was bright red with white writing ‘For Sale By Parents’. It looked just like a for-sale sign. Gave it to my kid with our fone number filled in. I thot it was an absoute hoot. Denver didnt think it too funny at all - the irony - now I need him to wear the shirt cuz I am not kidding - he needs to go! Gak I hate 15 - 16.
That toast shirt ROCKS!
Honestly, dentists have a sense of humour that’s second only to ER doctors’ in macabre-ness. Any fear you’ve ever had of the dentist is true, we really are all spiteful bastards.
I have the shirt with the orange who’s crying because nothing rhymes with orange. (http://www.threadless.com/product/462/Nothing_Rhymes_With_Orange) I wore it to work one day - we have a pretty casual dress code - and my kids immediately asked me why the orange was crying. I said, “I don’t know, what do you think? Everything you need to know is one the shirt.” They guess all day to no avail. Finally, toward the end of the day, in the middle of the math lesson when the class is actually - for once - deathly quiet, one of them points at me and SCREAMS, “HE’S CRYING BECAUSE NOTHING RHYMES WITH ORANGE!” He was so proud of himself, it was kind of adorable.
Oh god on the topic of toaster shirts, my roommate just bought this one the other day and now every time I see him I just die, he asks me to explain, and I wave him off telling him he just wouldn’t get it.
Steph, that is the perfect shirt to sum up the Bryz/toaster story. Look at those happy little toasts!
And the unhappy toaster. Poor toaster.
Bryz would of course be distressed by the unhappiness of the toaster though - “Are your breadholes okay!?”
Steph, that toaster shirt is also awesome! Who knew there were so many marvelous toaster shirts in the world?
Wow, Steph, that is a great shirt. I love the constipated look on the toaster.
Grace, that was exactly what prompted my roommate to buy it.
[...] write something schmoopy here about how awesome Boomer is, but we already did that for last Father’s Day. Instead, we’ll just say Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, and in the [...]