Holidays On Ice
A recent Boston Globe story about backyard skating rinks bringing hope and fun to families who have to now stick close to home brought back a lot of memories.
I’ve made three of these rinks over the years. The first one was in my parents’ backyard. In the spring, my father wondered where all the water in the basement came from. “I dunno, dad.
The backyard rink is a lot of work—and a lot of fun. Put a spotlight up and get the firepit roaring. These are times you’ll never forget.
Years ago, we produced a TV spot for the Springfield Falcons. We invited local high school hockey captains to play on a pond in Wilbraham. Big bonfire and all. It was a great day. But the spot never ran. The powers that be were embarrassed by it. Said it was amateur. The squelcher factor kicked in again. I asked one of them where he learned to play hockey in Canada.
“On a pond,” he said.
A couple years later, the NHL introduced the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day. Outdoors. Going back to hockey’s roots in playing on ponds. It was a huge success and it continues on. In fact, the Boston Bruins are exploring playing all home games this season outdoors at Fenway Park...with fans.
So back to the backyard. A couple things you should know. To stay warm, keep a flask in your jacket pocket. That way you can take a belt when Skippy and LuLu are tooling around the rink.
Flask sales are up 500% this year. And bourbon sales are up 30%. I’m finishing a book called Pappyland about Pappy Van Winkle and his coveted Kentucky bourbon. There’s a great quote in the book that speaks to where we’re at today: “Bourbon booms are tied mostly to a sense of nostalgia and longing...to memory. When the brown stuff is flying off the shelf, you can bet that we are unsure of where we are going and in need of a vehicle to take us back.”
Keep your dukes up.