Did you ever play pond hockey? In my case, it’s the only hockey I ever played. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, organized hockey for girls was virtually non-existent, but games on the lake behind our house were a daily free-for-all.

I remember my father clearing a large patch of the ice each winter, down where our small boat docked during the summers. He would surround the rink he made (about 80x60 feet?) with an elaborate maze of pathways shoveled out of the deep snow all around it, extending them in and out of the playing area. We’d all spend hours either chasing the puck on the rink, or each other around the pathways, trying not to wipe out in the high snow piles bordering our frozen playground. I think I must have had hypothermia to one degree or another about a 100 times during those winters.

(Update: In case you’d rather consider something more exciting, there’s always ‘Extreme Pond Hockey’...)

Anyway, this trip down memory lane was actually inspired by a post at On Frozen Blog this morning, where they note a new film called “Pond Hockey” being released in theaters soon.