Friday, June 5, 2009
My team...win or lose.
I became a Detroit Red Wings fan in 1949 when I would have needed to find the city on a map. But those posters in the barber shops in Vancouver with the team photo in the all red uniforms (Wayne Gretzky said were the best ever) did win me over. Fifteen years later I was working in Detroit and going to the games in the old Olympia and watching Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull skate like the wind and collide with each other like a thunderclap. Embedded in the ice at the new arena is the new motto: Hockeytown USA" and from the rafters hangs a large emblematic octopus. Why an octopus? Because in the days of the original 6 teams you had to win 8 games to win the Stanley Cup and some ingenious fan back then would throw a baby octopus on the ice. Today it has to be two octopi. By the way, here's the answer to my blog question. Who are the members of the famed Production Line? Ted Lindsey, Syd Abel and Gordie Howe. The top three scorers in the NHL in 1949. GM may be broke but the Wings are healthier than ever.
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The Penguins beat the Red Wings, but it was difficult to focus on the game. The colors and insignias pulled my mind back to an earlier time, a time when players didn't wear helmets, and goalies wore masks, but just. My children were confused as I called out names of skaters not on the ice. Gordie Howe! Rogie Vachon! Phil Esposito! The memories begin to slip, like the way we played crack the whip on the ice, holding tight to each other, grips slipping, our skates careening and singing. "Dad, if you're not paying attention, can we change the channel?" Ah, but they forget. "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." Words from Orwell's 1984 that apply equally to control of the TV remote.
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