When Lau laid down the Law

Laurie played hockey on Urann’s Pond for years with the neighborhood kids, so she knew how to play pretty well.

She was friends with many of the High School hockey team players, so she ended up playing in some of the pickup games at our outdoor rink. One day we had a number of high school kids, Eric and David, Uncle Mac and a handful of fathers all involved in a big game on a clear sunny day. Glen P happened to be the big body builder football player of my grade, but as he skated up ice with the puck, Laurie demonstrated the old adage of “the bigger they are, the harder they fall”. With a picture perfect legal hip check, Glen went down in a dramatic heap while Laurie (white figure skates and all) skated away with the puck – much to the very loud vocal amusement of everybody present. Well, every body but Glen’s father – who in an effort to get revenge for his shamed son started chasing Laurie in an obvious effort to even the score. Uncle Mac lived by the theory “mess with my family and you mess with ME!” so he started chasing Mr.P around to head him off before he got to Laurie. Glen tried to become invisible – hiding from the fact that he got decked by a girl and that his Dad was making a fool of himself and that a brawl was on the verge of breaking out over the whole deal. Cooler heads prevailed, Laurie became a folk hero, Uncle Mac was comfortable in knowing that he would have killed Mr. P if necessary, and Glen went on to lift enough weights to become as big as a house and compete in men’s body building competitions (where he would certainly never get shown up by a girl!). He eventually joined the Police Force where he could carry a gun and be really manly. That Christmas I bought Laurie shin guards on the theory that she would never get a date with shins black and blue from getting slashed in a hockey game.