The York Guardian

Ah yes, this steady blast of cold air and snow since Saturday means only one thing: the outdoor rinks will be good to go by the weekend and I'll be there at Ramsden Park with bells on to kick off the outdoor shinny season on Sunday.

But first things first. I had to get my skates sharpened. So I headed to my favorite store Absolutely Nothing But Hockey on Monday night to get them done.

Once inside I was treated to a real slice of Canadiana, a grandpa taking his grandson to buy some hockey equipment. It brought a tear to my eye.

JUNIOR: "Here they are. These are the ones I want. The Chris Pronger 3000s."

GRANDPA: "What the heck are those, Junior?"

JUNIOR: "Whaddya think, Grandpa? Shin pads."

GRANDPA: "Shin pads? You've gotta be joking. That looks like the armour they were wearing in that battle for Middle Earth in Lord Of The Rings. We sure as heck didn't have shin pads that looked like that when I was a kid."

JUNIOR: "You didn't."

GRANDPA: "Wasn't necessary. We rolled up old Sears catalogues under our jeans. That was good enough for us back then."

JUNIOR: "Really."

GRANDPA: "Yeppers. You kids today are spoiled rotten with all this high-tech stuff. Like that hanging on the wall. What are those monstrosities anyway?"

JUNIOR: "C'mon Grandpa, now I know you're pulling my leg. Everybody knows those are shoulder pads."

GRANDPA: "Shoulder pads? That has more metal in it than my grandpa's old Cadillac. We didn't buy shoulder pads. We draped beach towels over our arms. That was all we needed when I was a kid."

JUNIOR: "What about hockey gloves?"

GRANDPA: "Who had gloves? We wrapped worn-out sweat socks around our hands."

JUNIOR: "Did you have aluminum hockey sticks, like those over there?"

GRANDPA: "We didn't know how to spell aluminum, let alone make a hockey stick out of it."

JUNIOR: "Were they all graphite back then?"

GRANDPA: "What's graphite?"

JUNIOR: "So you mean you were using those old wood sticks I saw when you took me to the Hockey Hall of Fame?"

GRANDPA: "Who had sticks, period? We used sawed off fence posts."

JUNIOR: "What about pucks?"

GRANDPA: "Pucks? What are those? We used manhole covers."

JUNIOR: "And skates? Did you have skates, grandpa?"

GRANDPA: "You know very well we didn't have skates."

JUNIOR: "What did you do, Grandpa? Tape knives to the bottom of your feet?"

GRANDPA: "No, smarty pants. We didn't tape knives to the bottom of our feet."

JUNIOR: "I didn't think so."

GRANDPA: "Tape wasn't strong enough back then. We stapled them."

JUNIOR: "Can I just get the shin pads so we can get out of here - and more importantly put this flimsy to rest?"

GRANDPA: "No problem. Here's some money. I'll meet you at the car. I gotta pop into Home Hardware next door. I wanna play Sunday too and I'm fresh out of staples."