Being parents of two adult sons and a daughter, my wife and I have attended countless soccer, baseball, basketball, football games, dance recitals, and high school cheerleading performances. The cycle repeated itself when my twin granddaughters Kailyn and Sophia, now age 21 and in their last year of college, competed in hundreds of softball, volleyball, and soccer games, ran track, and cheered for the St. Raphael Academy football team.
These athletic events all had one common thread. They were held in mostly warm environments. While some football games and a few early season baseball and softball games were held during spring and fall when the weather had a chill in the air, they do not compare our newest adventure-high school hockey games. My grandson, 15-year-old freshman Nicholas, is a left-winger on the Blackstone Valley Schools varsity team. Consequently, we are being introduced an entirely new athletic circuit.
In our tour of the state’s high school hockey arenas, we have discovered sites that are reasonably comfortable. Schneider Arena at Providence College, the Smithfield Rink and Thayer Rink in Warwick are okay. Things start to get chillier at the Rhode Island Sports Center on Route 146 in North Smithfield, the Burrillville High School Rink and the Boss Arena at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston.
The deep freeze begins at the Cranston Memorial Ice Rink. But nothing is as arctic as the Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket. My wife and I have speculated that the heat was last turned on at this venue in 1982. If that wasn’t cold enough, brain-freezing ventilation drifts through the rink. As you sit and observe the action on the ice, you are almost frozen in place on the aluminum benches. And I’m grateful that high school hockey periods last 15 minutes instead of the standard 20 minutes.
The heat, what little there is, can be enjoyed if you take refuge in the lobby and thaw out for about 10 minutes between the second and third periods when the Zamboni resurfaces the ice. The Zamboni is not used between the first and second periods when the teams gather around their coaches to review the action and get instructions for the last period. So you endure the igloo atmosphere in frigid silence, insulated with a long-sleeve t-shirt, flannel shirt, a wool toque topped by a hooded sweat shirt, a winter coat, gloves and a scarf as you huddle under a blanket. (I am NOT exaggerating).
My memory harkens back to those winter Sunday evenings spent at the old Rhode Island Auditorium on North Main Street watching the Providence Reds battle their American Hockey League foes like the Quebec Aces, Rochester Americans, Hershey Bears, Springfield Indians, and the Buffalo Bisons for the Calder Cup (the AHL equivalent of Lord Stanley’s National Hockey League prized trophy). While I recall it being reasonably comfortable at the Auditorium, the cigarette and cigar smoke would rise to the rafters and could obscure some of the action on the ice by the third period.
The move to the Providence Civic Center in 1972 (now the Amica Mutual Pavilion) somehow took some of the aura away from the ritual Sunday contests at the old “barn.” I also saw the rodeo, the circus, and the Boston Celtics, with roundball legends such as Bob Cousy and Bill Russell, play the Cincinnati Royals, featuring Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson at the Auditorium. I also skated there during open skating sessions.
At any rate, I’m sitting here at the frozen tundra that is the Lynch Arena and enjoying every minute. I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Larry Grimaldi is a freelance writer from North Providence. Larry and his wife Kathy are co-authors of “Wandering Across America,” a chronicle of their cross-country road trip, and “Cooking with Mammie,” a collection of family recipes prepared with their grandchildren. He has also written the anthologies,“50 Shades of Life, Love, and Laughter, Volumes I & II.” The anthologies are a collection of previously published columns, used with the permission of Beacon Communications. For more information, or comments, e-mail lvgrimaldi49@gmail.com or visit fruithillpublishing.my.canva.site
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