There are events and place and people that stand out in one's life. Maybe they relatives now past. Maybe they are smells and aromas that instantly bring you to where you first encountered them. Maybe it's music and songs. Maybe it is childhood friends that you spent your growing years with. And maybe it is a location that held fond memories for you.

Such is Larimer Park for many of us. Larimer Park is just a city park. Not big; a half block wide between Oak and the alley. Just a park with a backstop, a drinking fountain and a warming house for ice skating. There was a telephone pole with four large lights on top.

But Larimer Park for some, was our backyard. Pickup football games or baseball games with bats, gloves and a tennis ball. In the winter it was our hockey stadium. There were metal hockey nets; one at the south end and the other one two thirds down the ice at the north end. On the backside of the north net, the skating area was separated with a snow fence.

Come November, Larimer was transformed into a skating rink. The city would plow the snow to create banks and flood the grass to form the rink.

There was a red fire hydrant near the fence on the alley side. If the temperature was cold enough, the city would come early in the morning with their fire hoses and huge wrench. They would sweep the ice and pour on a new coating of water for the day's skating.

The warming house was open from 9 in the morning until 9 at night. The furnace burned heating oil and we will always remember the smell that oil produces. Think black rubber mats on the concrete floor. Wooden benches surrounded the walls of the house. If it was a good day, there would be shoes everywhere. The park was a big draw for skating. Hockey was allowed at certain times. As I recall, you could play hockey after school up until 7. Then hockey would be stopped so that the entire rink was used for skating. Pom Pom was always a hit. Chains of skaters were made for crack the whip. Tag. And lots of plain skating. Some of us came hoping that there would be girls skating too. This was our gathering place. Boys and girls. It was simple. It was fun. Night skating held its own aura. The lamps were not very bright so that most of the rink was dim and the corners were dark. You felt close. You felt special. It was cool to be skating in the dim light with friends. It was magic.

It is in that memory that this website exists. Is pond hockey coming back? I don't know but more and more tournaments are popping up on lakes to relive the way many of us used to play hockey.

In that spirit, we formed a team; the Larimer Park Owls, and played in a tournament in Eagle River, Wisconsin in February, 2008.

The team consisted of

Tom, Illinois
Marty, Illinois
Ed, Texas
Lyle, Texas
Marc, Texas
Jim, Ohio
Skip, Kansas