When I lived in Wisconsin a hockey stick (wood, wrapped with duct tape), puck, & skates were more important than a baseball glove or football.
Any frozen surface - a flood pond or even a ditch - would do to take to the ice & smack a puck around. Of course, we were playing & not being pregroomed for future competition. Whatever happened to letting kids be kids?
money and fame
Global warming...there's no more ice, or so we've been told.
elcid, I grew up in the NW burbs of Chicago. Out back, we had 100 acres of field the school district owned and it stayed field. We had a large area that filled with water due to the heavy fall season rains. Now back in the late 70s we had real winters there. Cold as heck all through Nov - Mar.
Anyway, water would freeze and everyday after school all kids would storm the “rink” and play hockey until dark.
I couldn’t skate for nothing. Some of us played in our hiking boots. Anyone remember Colorado’s? Others had skates.
Played with a real puck, no equipment. Goalie had a baseball glove. No lift rule but many guys took a puck to the knee or shin. Man those were great times.
Winning team shared a beer stolen from a dad’s garage. That was the “Cup”.