Whitby Fres Prose, Weckmeday, Mwc 21,19". pue 7 ............................................ ............ Return to ice The parking lot of the commumity rink creaks with snow. Y ou hoist your hockeyr equipment over your right shoulder.Your lefthandho dsyour stick and skates. It is hockey night in Canada. Inside the arena, the air hints of brine. We push into the rink. We jerk open the door to dressing room number four. 1 follow my brother's lead. We prop our hockey sticks behind the door. Tonight we will play hockey together for the first time ever. Jim i . fifty. 1 arn five years older. 1 have flot played hockey for thirty eight years. Jim introduces me te the two other players in the room. This is his regular Thursday night hockey group. Weeks ago he threatened to bring his older brother. The kids al laughied. But tonight I'm here. 1 concentrate on the equipment. Much bas changed. «Velcro,» I say. "What's that'?" «W e used te hold our hockey stockings Up with jar rub4r rings." - The young guys don't smile. Tbey don't know what jar rubber rings are. I dress in silence. Shin pads. Hockey socks. Jock strap. Garter beit. Shoulder and elbow pads. Skates. Helmet. Most of the gys in this room weren't born thirty eight years ago.9Sone have arms bigger than my legs. 'This is no contact, no-referee hockey" says Jim. The zamboni bas barely cleared the door when we ste p on the ice. Freshly flooded ice has a special sheen. We skate in Canadian circles -- anti-clockwise. Orange sweaters on one end, black at the other. These guys are flot only big -- they're fast. 1 try one of the dozens of pucks scurr . acroas the ice. It fits nicely on my Christmas hockey stick. Bang! I raise one against.the boards. No power, but I cari still shoot. We take turns skating in on our goalie. Once, twice, three times. He easily stops my shots. At centre ice we gather up pucks. Let tbe game begin. Slap! Bang!. These guys aren't bitting. But they are skating. Rus bing and passing. I fear I will look foohsh. "Bench!" I look up. The guys on the bench give me a pat. My turn. Over the boards I go. Up and down the ice we race. A loose puck bore, a missed pass there. Once, in front of the opposition net, 1 backband a rebound tbree inches wide of the post. Two, tbree, times up and down the ice and I bead for the bench. 1 sit down, sucking air. "Okayr some asks. "Great," I pant. ThefM y minutes flash by. ?4y legs don'tfold as badly as Ifeared A couple ofrushes I actùally skate by one or two of te kids. Then hockey history happons. Remember, Jim and I are playig together for the first Urne ever. And now on the same shift. Jim wins a acramble ini front ofthe net. He Shoots! He Scores! - his second goal ofthe year. A minute later, still on the same shift, -- or next, 1 forget -- Jim chas a loose puck into thle left corner. Fights for it. Slaps it te me behind the net. For a nanosecond I amn in Gretzky's office. To tbe left. To the rigbt. Fake. Then corne around the riqht post witb the wrap- aroundjust beating tbe goalie s outstretched leg. Hie Shoots! Hie Scores! 11e will neyer know if ail those friendly guys in London set up that goal. 11e doesn't want te know. Hie does know that when lie last played hockey, Bobby Hull was ini tbe eleventh grade and hadn't yet 1k~i - - - - ..- w - - - - ' - 6 & âil-,q 6 r-3 r ~ MILITARY PARADE ON DUNDAS ffrEET EAffI! MARCH 3,1916 These school children are pasSing the residence of Judge Theodore McGillivry at Dundas and Perry streets (now the site of Hakim Optical)., The parade was held to celebrate a flag-raising at the Whitby Armories where the Toronto-Domiion Bank i. now. Wb1tbr Archlvm V-e 10 YEARS AGO from the Wedneeday, FebruaTy 29, 1984 edition of the WlI1TBY FREEPRESS " Kurz Foods is moving to Port Perry, folowing destruction by lire of its Myrtle Station meatproesmg pant. " Iroquois Park w11 have to b. expanded to meet Whitby's recreation needs, says councillor Marcel Brnelle. " An iquest tato the death of a cromang guard in 1983 recommended paramedic training for ambulance attendants. " Pringle Creek Co-op housing will provide accmmodation for 80 families when completed. 35 YEARS AGO fio= the Th ierML6, 1959 edition dcfth. * 1hree new principals appointed by Sthe Whitby Public School Board are Dwight Swerdfeger, William Batten and LlcdBute. " Record snowfalls are being éleared from Whitby streets tde winter. " Surveys are completed for postal delivery walks in Whitby. " lhere are 3,621 telephones in Whitby, accordinoe to the Bell Telephone Company. 125 YEARS AGO from the Thursdayb= 25, 1869 editionotfthe e An Ontarlo County School convention will be held in the Whitby Town Hall on March 1 to discuss amendments to the provincels common and grammar achool laws. 9 A public meeting of the Reform electors of South Ontario riding will be held in the Town Hall at Brooklin on Feb. 27 to support Dr. William MeGiil, MPP. e W.H. Hannam is selling bis paint and wallpaper store because of iii health. *The Chronicle is promoting a county railway froni Port Whitby to Lake Huron, instead of just to Port Perry. fe5ryw Pa 77(FrttRY Mo/1URFYfTtFe.- Mlof' we'$I --Ut