The Pond

HASBROUKE NEIGHTS, NJ – As you walk back towards the trees it slowly comes into focus, it is the pond. It sits in the woods just behind the tennis courts, basketball courts, and the baseball fields. This is where I really learned how to play hockey.
 
This is where my friends and I could skate for hours and have no parents or coaches looking at us and make corrections to our game. It is where so many game seven Stanley Cup goals were scored that we probably won the Silver Chalice over a thousand times.
 
This where when you breathed heavy on those cold winter days and nights your lungs hurt because the air was like ice. I remember never wanting to come off the ice, my toes would be frozen my nose would be beat red from the cold. You would have steam coming off of you from sweating from the layers of clothes you would have on.
 
You never wanted to leave the game or have the game end. It just went on all day and into the night. Guys would come and go all day long. You would stop every once in a while to make the teams even. The sticks would be place like pick up sticks in the middle of the pond and the two best players or the oldest guys on the pond would toss the sticks to either side to choose up teams. They would know whom they would want on their teams by knowing whose stick belonged to each player.
 
You would not even want to stop and eat the lunch your mom packed for you. It just sat in the snow bank next your skate bag. There was too much hockey to be played. The only time you might eat is when everyone took turns shoveling off the ice shavings to make it easier to move the puck.
 
My favorite part of the pond was when the lights came on. This was one of the perks of having the town operate the pond. It was so cool to be on the ice and have the lights on the ice. You could not see into the woods so it felt like you and your friends where the only people in the world. You were alone and just playing the game and having fun with your friends.
 
When I look back on this time in my life, it was our Winter Classic….
 
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Chris Riley is the creator of the Asphalt Avengers cartoon series. He is an adjunct faculty at New Jersey Institute of Technology and has produced hockey for several national sports broadcasting outlets.