Flashback to the hockey season of 2011

January 2011 -- Canadian grandmothers learned about hockey because their fathers played the game. Girls took hockey to be a man's sport. How could I have lived so long and understood so little. Even my daughter was limited to field hockey. 'Intellectually I knew things had changed. But I just shrugged and moved on. The emotional whammy hit when I went to see my granddaughter play real, honest-to-God bone-jolting hockey. Who knew women were so keen to throw body checks? One of the local hockey Coliseums is known as the Rinx, well known I'm sure to everyone but me. It's an incredibly primitive place with hostile signs like "No Public Washrooms.” How did they get that reality past Toronto the Good's Nanny State Licensing Board? Go to Rink Three we were told. But there must be a mistake. Rink Three is full of young men warming up for a game. "No, no," said a smiling mum. "Those are the girls." Our jaws dropped. Omygod! When did skates and padding make girls look like big guys? You have to identify your kid by her pony tail! And when I say things have changed, you know it. There after the game was a hockey father firmly lecturing his little girl about "engaging, engaging" and he didn't mean getting a ring on her finger --Trish