Falla, Jack. Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds. New York: Viking. 2001. Print
My backyard skating rink is important because it connects me with people I love.
Since I first built it seventeen winters ago, the rink has been a bridge to family and friends, a road back to the frozen ponds of my New England childhood, a lens through which I've watched my children and their friends grow up, and an arena wherein I've battled the encroachments of middle age.
Middle age is winning.
Description:
[This review is dedicated to my son who took up ice skating early and needed a place to practice. Without him, there would be no backyard rink at our house or late-night, 14-degree maintenance by me. Also, it is dedicated to my wife who put up with skated feet tromping through bushes and gardens looking for lost pucks, as well as my constant fretting about weather reports as I waited for the necessary 4+ days of freezing weather to flood the rink. Believe me, I can be a real bore about that!]
I know, I know, it's only September. Summer is still in its waning days, the colors of fall are on their way, and winter's cold is a distant, looming nightmare for many people. But September makes me dream happily of freezing days, bitter nights, and glorious ice.
I am dreaming of my backyard ice rink. Only 32' x 16', it was located for seven years in our small backyard in temperate central Ohio. It was a rink too small for great skating, with house windows temptingly close for easy breaking, and located in a climate zone with madding weather that freezes late in the winter and thaws way too early.
But like Jack Falla in his wonderful memories, Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds, during those short years I heard the siren call of the cold and tried to answer it by creating an icy microcosm for our son and his friends. Why does a Los Angeles native like me do this? Because there is nothing better than hearing kids skate, shoot pucks into the boards, collide, laugh, and then warm up by our fire pit with hot chocolate. I can think of no better way for children, preteens, and everyone else to interact with their fellow humans in the spirit of fun without worrying about appearance, sex, coolness, or rivalries. Backyard rinks rule!
Jack Falla in Home Ice explains this joy and personal fulfillment that comes with creating, maintaining, and using a backyard rink. He describes his early efforts, often flooding the neighbor's yard and his own basement. A sportswriters for Sports Illustrated, Falla wrote a short piece for SI in the 1980s about his home ice rink. Surprisingly, he received more comments and letters from readers about that tiny item than his feature article on the Stanley Cup playoffs.
He began to write more articles and reflections on home ice rinks, memories of skating on frozen ponds, and the people who enjoyed these spots. These articles and a few new ones are now compiled in Home Ice.
Falla interviews pro skaters who grew up on ponds or small outdoor community rinks. These pros conclude that today's players all have more powerful slap shots because they grew up using inside rinks with boards. Pond hockey players had to chase errant pucks for long distances on the lake or buried in snowbanks. Controlled passing and shooting, albeit softer, was the trademark of the old pond hockey pro.
Home Ice also takes us along on a road trip with Falla as he explores the rink built by Walter Gretzky, Wayne's father, in a climate so cold he merely had to pile snow into barriers, then turn on a lawn sprinkler all night to fill in the depression. (Every other rink requires solid boards to hold the water/ice in place.) Gretzky remembers curing Wayne of leaving his hockey sticks, pucks and other stuff on the ice at night. He just turned on the rink sprinkler all night until the equipment was covered with water and frozen onto the surface.
Falla's family is deeply involved with the rink. His wife Barbara, who he met while skating, feels "anyone can love summer, but to love winter you have to carry your sunshine around with you." His family skates together, with friends, and alone, each helping maintain the ice by shoveling te ice clear of snow. The most dishonorable act is to come to the ice to skate without first helping shovel the rink.
Falla himself feels the calming strength of skating and shooting pucks when under stress or after the death of his mother. He finds it is a "good and blameless thing to do when the world fills with confusion and goodbye."
Episode after episode revolves around relationships with the ice, the quiet nights, checking the local pond for ice strength (and falling in), the perfection of black ice, the frenzied pick-up games (including Barbara who goes into the boards hard with her stick up), and the sadness of the dismantling of the rink at the end of the too-short season.
It is fabulous book to bring back childhood and family memories of cold, ice, and skating. For those like me growing up in warm LA, it brings me back the pleasure of my own small rink. For others, it will show a world of cold that is welcoming, not threatening. Falla's goal for the book was to provide for his readers what my rink has so long provided for me -- joy, warmth, and light."
For me, he has succeeded. But I sincerely hope you read this small book for yourself and get a sense of this wonderful world of rinks, ponds, and outdoor skating. It is a delight you must at least read about. Who knows? Maybe you will be building you own rink someday, or at least taking the opportunity to skate outdoors on black ice.
Happy reading.
Fred
If this book interests you, be sure to check out:
Falla, Jack. Open Ice: Reflections and Confessions of a Hockey Lifer
More wonderful stories of Falla's experience playing, writing about, and otherwise experiencing hockey, including his 25 year quest to build the perfect backyard ice rink.
Orr, Bobby. Orr: My Story
With an honest voice, Bobby Orr narrates his life story and passion for hockey at every level. Not a tell-all book nor a vanity project to promote himself. Orr is a solid storyteller with in-depth reflections about the people and thrill of playing hockey at the highest level.
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