Street Hockey

Read this article today:

http://www.thepassinglane.ca/2010/04/rcmp-called-in-to-break-up-street-hockey-game.html

I have only one word: pathetic. Who in the hell calls the cops to break up a street hockey game?

So much is made about kids spending too much time in front of the television playing video games or watching TV. Not getting enough exercise. Being overweight. Not socializing enough. And then you see something like this. A group of neighbourhood kids addressing all four of those problems and what happens? A disgruntled neighbour calls the cops.

I agree 100% with some of the comments in this article saying that the RCMP officer should have manned up to whoever called in the complaint. Police officer these days have much more important things to do than to respond to complaints about kids playing street hockey, unless of course the kids are obstructing traffic or causing a problem. But 99% of the time, whenever the "CAR!" cry is yelled, the nets and all participants are off the street in about five seconds.

This takes me back to about 1990, when I was at that age where the afternoon street hockey games were everything; when every Saturday afternoon my friend across the street and I would knock on every neighbourhood kid's door whose name we knew, and called up every school friend we could to get a game going. Then we would gather on Sundial Drive in front of my house and play until it was either too dark to see the ball or until everyone got called inside by their parents.

This happened almost every Saturday until I was about 14 or 15 and all the kids moved away and I started high school (interestingly, this was also when I got fat; coincidence? I think not). Even when my friend's older brothers, the self-proclaimed trouble makers in the neighourhood, played, nothing malicious was ever done to the neighbours or their property and cars never had a problem getting past us. In all the years we played, I can't remember a single window, or anything else getting broken, and getting nothing but smiles and thumbs up from people as they passed us.

Even though my enthusiasm for street hockey has waned over the years, I would never even for a split second think of getting in the way of kids playing street hockey and having fun. Some of my fondest childhood memories come from those games on Sundial Drive, and I hope my kids will have the same experience growing up that I did.

This is what growing up in Canada is all about. Playing street hockey with the neighbourhood kids. My Canada includes street hockey.

-matt