For me it is easiest to bond with a child/as a child when sports are involved. Some of my favorite memories involve playing or attending sporting events. The relationship my Father and I have today is a product of going to more games than I can count. While he was more of a 'car guy' I was a sports fan from birth. This was a major anomaly in my family, as most sports were only a passing interest, and even that fluctuated.
Hockey is great live, I even got to take my 6 year old daughter to a Providence Bruins game last year. Even from the cheap seats, she was hooked. She still thought the Yankees were playing (took her to see the Red Sox versus the Yankees AAA teams in Pawtucket for her first sports event) but soon figured it out and was even able to keep up with the action and figure the basics out in less than two periods. She still talks about it and has the Bruins flag on her wall that I got her.
About 15 years ago my father worked with a man that played for Team USA in Japan for the paralympic hockey team. They play on a sled that is like a big skate and have 2 sticks with little spikes (like on shoes the mountain climbers use) they use to propel themselves. It is unbelievable the strength they need to do that. I stink on regular skates and I helped ref one of their practices. I had a dozen stitches and an eyebrow that splits in two as a rememberence. For Christmas I received ticket to a Bruins game. We got a bump from the cheap seats to sitting with his friend in the handicapped area. You are right in line with the top of the glass, about 20 feet from the ice. You could hear the swears and yelling from anywhere on the ice, even with a loud crowd. That was fantastic, an amazing atmosphere and enough action (compared to baseball, my main passion) to keep you glued to your seat.
Around the same time I also won season tickets to Northeastern college. The team was awful but I did see several future NHL players destroy the home team. There was also a Swedish defenseman for Northeastern with a huge shot but no accuracy. Even in practice he was launching pucks into the stands and that was with all day to line up the shot and nobody contesting him. Sure enough in a game he got a chance to uncork a shot from inside the blue line, straight on and close enough so that he almost couldn't miss the net. Well the guy 25 rows up and about 15 feet wide of the goal tried to catch the inaccurate shot and got his thumb snapped back to his wrist. That didn't stop the puck, it slammed into the seats about 20 feet back. He reminded me of the kid in one of the Mighty Ducks movies that couldn't skate but had a fireball of a shot. I still have a few errant pucks from those games.
The best thing about going to games is that my Dad and I got to drive in and talk. While the subjects at hand didn't really seem to matter, the memories are priceless. Now I have taken my daughter to a few games and soon my other children will be able to go and enjoy the action. All I can hope is that they are able to create some of their great memories like I have.
