Hey, council, let’s have more of this!

A great Canadian scene as people of all ages play on the outdoor rink at Wallace Park, with some playing shinny and others just skating for pleasure, on the same ice, at the same time.

You can’t beat this kind of play for building community and learning to get along with others. The best part of outdoor shinny in Canada is that unlike any other team sports, no one is ever picked last: you put everyone’s stick in the middle of the ice, someone splits them up towards each end, and then you go find your stick. That’s your team.

Well, it is until the play seems too uneven, when usually a good player or two will be moved over to the weaker team, because one-sided play just isn’t as much fun. The complete beginner skating on their ankles is never left out.

“I’m not telling anyone not to watch TV, but if you’ve ever spent a long winter afternoon playing shinny with the whole neighbourhood, or a summer playing softball with anyone who shows up at a diamond, you will know that kids who don’t have the chance to organize themselves and solve their own problems and feel the exhilaration of sport for its own sake are missing out on something irreplaceable.” (Bobby Orr)

As kids, we used to do this for hours on end, reluctantly quitting only when called home for dinner. (One friend of mine, from Saskatchewan, told me of his mother wrapping baked potatoes in his skates for the walk to the rink: the skates were warm to put on and the unwrapped potatoes made for an energy boost.)

You can still get second-hand skates from the skate exchange for almost nothing, as we did, and a broken wooden stick with a plastic road hockey blade from Canadian Tire is all you need to join in.

There is talk that this and other outdoor ice in Oakville could soon get artificial chilling to make it available more often and the season a bit longer. If you think this is a good idea, tell or write to your councillors and the Mayor. Oakville’s winters have never been reliable, but there is no reason we can’t have a few months of shinny in the winter with a little help from technology.