MY FIRST MASK

It gets cold in Prince George in December.

How cold? Try -30 to -40 for weeks at a time - at least that’s how cold it got in my youth - Global Warming wasn’t a catch phrase or a planetary threat when I was six.

It was at that age that I learned the true effect an arctic climate could have on an otherwise harmless tennis ball.

I was the youngest kid in my neighborhood and the one most eager to play goalie during our daily street hockey games. My equipment consisted of a plastic “Super Blade” goal stick, foam pads strapped on with elastic bands, a hockey glove with cardboard attached to it and a ball glove. No cup (I was six), and no mask.

The no cup thing lasted a lot longer than the no mask did because the day I discovered the knock down power of a frozen tennis ball was my “Jacque Plante Moment.”

Just a dozen years after Plante defiantly donned the first mask in NHL play, I strapped on my first facial protective device in northern British Columbian street hockey action. A 12 year old neighbor with the cannon slapshot of a 14 year old struck me flush on my half frozen cheek and eye-socket with a whistling iceball. His name was Norm Brown.

The violent head shot and the ensuing pain sent me howling home to my mommy. (Norm showed very little sympathy.)

My dad interrupted my blithering and loaded me in the station wagon for the drive downtown to Northern Hardware. Once there he marched me over to Sporting Goods and outfitted me with a Tony Esposito modeled plastic mask. It was a joyous and empowering moment. I couldn’t wait to get home, get that mask on and show that prick Norm Brown how tough I was. And so I did.

From then on I tended the aluminum framed net full of holes on the streets of PG with fearless defiance. I wish you could have seen me, MFG - I was good!

I don’t know what ever happened to Norm “$h*t For Brains” Brown but I went on to wear a lot of masks, stop a lot of pucks (and balls), and break a lot of shooters’ hearts.

Here for your enjoyment are images of some of the masks I doth did don: