> >
> >Why do Canadian prisons have ice rinks? And why
are they outside the
> >walls?
> >
> >Mark
> I can take this! I can take this! (Hi,
Kerry.)
> Because (a) ice hockey is the national sport,
and
> (b) in a typical winter the whole of Canada east of
the Rockies is an ice
> rink
Just to clarify, the Canadian national sport is lacrosse. Ice
hockey is the national winter sport. Coming from east of the
Rockies, I'll add to the above. At least here in Western
Canada the prison rinks are "outside" but not outside the
prison walls. By outside we mean open air rinks, not the
typical enclosed arena with a roof. My visits to prisons were
usually in the summer to play softball against the inmates,
but one time in the winter I travelled with my college floor
hockey team to the Stony Mountain federal penitentiary for a
game. I was the ice hockey referee-in-chief at the college,
but also officiated floor hockey.
Although it was 30 years ago I remember three things clearly
about that game. First of all, one of my classmates, who was
editor of the college paper, was not on the list of people
approved to visit the prison. He had to remain "outside" the
walls while we went inside for the game. Secondly, the game
was in the prison gym, which was very small and the inmates
were crowded around the walls yelling and betting, usually
for their team. It could have been an intimidating atmosphere
for most officials. The other referee, who appeared to be a
bodybuilder, came over to me before the game began and said,
"Don't worry, I own this gym."
Thirdly, the college team led by a couple of goals at
half-time. When the second and final period began, the prison
team consisted of an entirely new group of players. When I
asked the other ref about it, he replied, "They just came in
from outside." I knew he meant they had been playing ice
hockey. The ice hockey players were also the best floor
hockey players so the prison team easily won the game. It
must have been about 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit
"outside" that January night.
Maybe there's a short story for the next edition of the
Canadian anthology, Iced, in that tale.
In regard to Travis McGee, a list I found somewhere has The
Deep Blue Good-By, Nightmare in Pink and A Purple Place For
Dying in the omnibus published in 1975. For the past couple
of years, I have been trying to complete my late father's
John D. MacDonald collection by picking up cheap copies at
used bookstores, thrift shops and our hospital charity book
markets. Now have all the McGees but one, but am still hoping
to find Weep For Me, Area of Suspicion, A Bullet For
Cinderella, Murder in the Wind, The Price of Murder, The End
of the Night and End of the Tiger and Other Stories. The hunt
is part of the fun as Rara Avians know. Think I'll go out
hunting rather than watch the Olympics.
Kent Morgan in Winnipeg who played a little "pond" hockey on
the Red River
(of the North) a couple of Saturdays ago
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 16 Feb 2002 EST