Il y a treize ans... What?... No one speaks French...OK...I get it.
I will now try to explain (yes, I'll be humble) one of the great traditions of Hillside House: Hockeytown! Unfortunately, over the past few years, it has been only an alumni event, but it still remains one of those few bonding rituals that Hillside's true faithful (men and women alike) live for.
When I began my adventure at Hillside in 1986 (damn, that's a long time ago, eh), I was introduced to a semi-annual event called "Hockeytown" by some great alums. They told me that two times a year, once in the early fall before Homecoming and right before Spring Break, a bunch of them got together at the Hockeytown rinks in lovely Saugus to play "street hockey" (pas de glace?).
The two teams were separated into undergrads and grads. Everyone would pitch in between $5-$10 (depending on the showing) to play for about 2 hours or until we thought our lungs collapsed. And Yes, there were even some women who played and they played great, too. The rest of the hockey-challenged Hillsiders would fill the benches (and penalty boxes for those who felt shame) with hot cocoa, water, gatorade, unmentionable alcoholic beverages, etc...and they were GREAT, LOYAL, and at times, BRAVE fans. The players were also great and brave, too. Many times, I remember goalies without pads, people eating street hockey balls from slapshots, people getting hit in their unmentionables...etc...
In the past few years, many of the alum have played and have tried to include the undergrads from time to time...when there were not enough of us, we recruited outsiders to round up the necessary 12 (so that we did not have to turn the NETS down...ugh!)...BUT, I hope we can rekindle cette tradition glorieuse un plus fois et encore (oops, there's the French again)...Because the games were always better when there were just Hillsiders playing... How about one this Spring... say March?..
Ole time 'ockey is coming BACK...
Au revoir...Vive les Canadiens....
Editorial Note:
Dennis is an avid Canadiens (yes, exactly, who?) fan.