Love of Hockey - Ross

by Arena Rock April 19, 2017 0 comments 1950's 1960's hockey Lisa g Nielsen

Ross emailed these memories as well...

My biggest memories of this great building were as a kid growing up in North Richmond... we played hockey every Saturday morning at Kerrisdale Arena from the time I was six years old till I was 12 (1958 - 64). My coach and neighbour Doug Norris Sr, ex 1940’s Canuck, coached us. We would then leave the Arena and go home to play soccer in the Richmond League and THEN...at about 1:30 PM a whole huge carload of us in a ’52 Pontiac or Chevy (no seat belts of course) would come back to the rink for the afternoon recreational skate!!

I love to come to the Arena once in a while sit and watch a hockey game, the dressing rooms, concourse, the seats it just feels like one of those places in Vancouver you can go to that hasn't really changed. That's a hard thing to find. I love the inside roof - I wish they did not cover the ceiling insulation (although I get it) - because it has a glorious framing and a beautiful old wooden roof, painted white. My parents and grandparents (born in Vancouver in 1892) lived in Kerrisdale in the 20’s 30’s & 40’s, it has a special sentimental attachment to me as my kids played some hockey there - that's four generations of Vancouver born and bred, in my family, of people using the Kerrisdale Arena.