{"id":19594,"date":"2018-01-19T21:49:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T02:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=19594"},"modified":"2018-01-19T21:49:42","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T02:49:42","slug":"front-porch-perspective-the-old-boys-are-back-and-getting-slower-and-older","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/front-porch-perspective-the-old-boys-are-back-and-getting-slower-and-older\/","title":{"rendered":"FRONT PORCH PERSPECTIVE: The (old) boys are back \u2013 and getting slower and older!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville<\/strong><\/p>\n

A number of years ago I decided to try and find somewhere much closer to home to play hockey \u2013 those late Sunday night games in Toronto were killing me the next day!
\nLuckily enough, a friend asked me if I wanted to play organized \u201cpick up\u201d hockey on Sunday afternoons at Pickering College.
\nI didn\u2019t know what to expect at the time, but I said, \u201cSure.\u201d
\nWe don\u2019t have referees or timekeepers or scorekeepers.
\nOne of the guys acts as a convenor, and instead of throwing the sticks in the middle of the ice as we used to do as kids to determine the teams, he chooses the sides while we are in the dressing room.
\nWe have about twenty guys, all shapes, sizes, ages and levels of ability ranging from not very good (moi) to guys who played Junior \u201cA\u201d hockey.
\nI have been playing with this group for almost a decade now and I have never had a more enjoyable experience.
\nThe guys are funny, and just like the eight year old boys we used to be, we still like to use a little trash talk.
\nAnd we still have the enthusiasm of youth.
\nWe forget all our cares and concerns for that one hour. And what a glorious hour it is.
\nWhat I appreciate most is no coach yelling, \u201cSomerville, for the love of God, would you pretend to back-check just once this season\u201d, or my all-time favourite, \u201cSomerville, these are not ceremonial face-offs, you are actually allowed to win one of them, you know\u201d.
\nWe always kid each other that if you don\u2019t play well, you will be sent down to the minors. Leaf players can get sent down to the Marlies; the only thing lower than our league is public skating!
\nAnd having your friends as the goalies is always great for the ribbing and bragging rights that goes on during the rest of the week.
\nI also play hockey in the Tuesday night over 50 League in Aurora.
\nWe have two officials, and an official time keeper.
\nDuring the first game this year I was (honest truth!) \u201cminus three\u201d after the opening shift.
\nI was the starting centre who lost three draws in quick succession and the puck was in the back of the net three times before the game was one and a half minutes old. I wanted to stay out on the ice for a fourth \u2013 but my teammates thought that I had done enough damage for one shift.
\nWhat follows is a partial transcript of the conversation I had with a player from this hockey team a couple of years back:<\/p>\n

Stephen: What\u2019s this on my shirt?
\nOther Player: Somerville, we haven\u2019t even got on the ice yet and you\u2019re already complaining. Sorry that you didn\u2019t get the \u201cC\u201d, but we were thinking of giving you an \u201cA\u201d \u2013 for \u2026 (can\u2019t print this due to The Auroran being a family newspaper) \u2013 but the seven-letter word used has the same last four letters as foxhole. You get the picture.
\nStephen: Thanks for that Mike, now you just wait until I tell your sister (a.k.a. my wife) how you treat me. No, I am not complaining about my lack of team status but how come my shirt has a small patch on the front that says \u201cold timer\u201d. I don\u2019t mind if it says \u201cterrible player wears this shirt\u201d, but not \u201cold timer\u201d. I only want to be called an old timer when I can get into the movies cheaply or get my hair cut at a reduced rate\u201d.<\/p>\n

These Sunday afternoon and Tuesday evening one hour games are like a fountain of youth \u2013 carefree and fun. I wouldn\u2019t miss it.
\nJust don\u2019t call me an \u201cold timer\u201d though.<\/p>\n

Stephen can be contacted at stephengsomerville@yahoo.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Stephen Somerville A number of years ago I decided to try and find somewhere much closer to home to play hockey \u2013 those late Sunday night games in Toronto were killing me the next day! Luckily enough, a friend asked me if I wanted to play organized \u201cpick up\u201d hockey on Sunday afternoons at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-562","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-18 08:36:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}