writing exercise: write about your favorite Christmas gift

My All-time Favorite Christmas Gift
By Scott Warner


In 1958, I and my two brothers were given a marvelous Christmas present by our parents. It was a tabletop ice hockey game manufactured by the Eagle Toy Company of Canada. The hockey game was the original design different from the modern day version. The hockey players were printed sheet steel silhouettes instead of three dimensional molded plastic. The players in the set we were given that Christmas were the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Players representing the other four teams in professional hockey (the Boston Bruins, the New York Rangers, the Detroit Redwings and the Chicago Blackhawks) were also available. The toy was constructed of masonite and measured 36 inches by 16 inches with the logos of all six teams printed along the sides.

Like today's tabletop hockey games, the players could rotate to shoot or pass the puck by twisting metal rods at each end of the rink. However you couldn't slide the players forwards and backwards on the ice surface; in this version of the game, the players remained in a fixed position. This would seem to be a less versatile arrangement than the modern day design except for one thing: the game was not played with a plastic disk as the puck but with a steel ball bearing the size of a large marble.

The steel ball traveled with much greater speed than the flat disk does, thus creating much more excitement for the two participants. Each team consisted of five players just like real hockey. Two corner defensemen were situated in round semicircular curves beside the goal mouth, a center man covered the face-off circle and two forwards were positioned a few inches outboard of the opponent's goal. The goalie was stationed in the goal crease and slid side-to-side by means of a flat lever bar.

Unlike real hockey, most of the offense was generated by the two corner defensemen because you could trap the ball under high tension against the curved sidewall while prepositioning the center man and the two forwards to deflect the ball in different directions. Then just a little extra twist of the fingers and the defenseman would shoot the steel ball at amazing velocity as if fired by a slingshot. The speed was so rapid, the ball was only a blur. The clang produced by ricocheting the ball off the goalie was an exhilarating effect surpassed only by the satisfaction of scoring a goal. Your opponent's forward would desperately try to deflect the shot if he could which usually led to a mad scramble for the ball. My father, my brothers and I spent many hours of wonderfully frenetic fun playing with this delightful toy.

In certain situations, a ricochet would produce a nice high ping, reminiscent of a real hockey puck striking the crossbar, and the steel ball would zzzingg right past your face like a bullet. Luckily we never had any accidents but they must have occurred because a few years later, the design of tabletop hockey games was changed to flat plastic pucks. I don't recall whatever happened to our game but at some point it must have been discarded. I wish I still had it. They are offered for sale on Ebay for 150 to 200 dollars depending upon condition.

It might seem trivial to choose this Christmas gift as the most important one. However my father was a hard working individual who devoted long hours to his job as a Bell Telephone station manager. He was so tired after work, he rarely had time to spend with our family except for watching a little TV before retiring for the night. He died when I was fifteen and I never had the chance to really get to know him as an adult. Thus I am very grateful for those enjoyable times when we skipped Mitch Miller and played hockey on the kitchen table instead. My parents' gift provided a wonderful opportunity to spend rewarding recreation with my father, memories of playing this game with him are my fondest. And I still recall the satisfaction when I managed to defeat him. Ah, the quickness of youth! Merry Christmas Dad.


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