![Home Ice](https://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/13875/663156/60c899dd8193f/Home-Ice.jpg)
ON SATURDAY nights, as 7 p.m. nears, I pour popcorn into a bowl and a cold beverage into a glass, and I seat myself in my preferred spot on the couch, closest to the television. I change the channel to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs play hockey. Streak or slump, I tune in as I’ve done since I was a child growing up on the reserve. This expression of fandom is more than just a ritual and more complex than just supporting a professional hockey team that is both beloved and reviled. Like those of so many other sports fans, the roots of my devotion are intergenerational.
I grew up in Wasauksing First Nation, an island community on Georgian Bay near Parry Sound, Ontario. I’m of mixed Anishinaabe and Canadian heritage: my dad is from the rez, and my mom is from town. I don’t remember when and how, exactly, I became a Leafs fan as a kid in the 1980s; the team has always been a part of my life and a part of my father’s. We didn’t have hydro in our home until I was about eight years old, so I was introduced to my favourite sports team off the grid. My earliest memories include my dad connecting a small black-and-white TV to a car battery in order to tune in to CBC on the rabbit ears and watch Hockey Night in Canada. We eventually got electricity and a colour TV, and antenna reception improved enough to watch games more regularly. The late ’80s were hardly a glorious era for the Buds, but the period was defined by Wendel Clark, a mustachioed forward whose physicality, grit, and scoring prowess still made the game fun to watch.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July/August 2021-Ausgabe von The Walrus.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July/August 2021-Ausgabe von The Walrus.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
![MY GUILTY PLEASURE](https://reseuro.magzter.com/100x125/articles/13875/1721021/ZjBpzYG4o1719492279999/MY-GUILTY-PLEASURE.jpg)
MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I WAS AS SURPRISED as anyone when I became obsessed with comics again last year, at the advanced age of forty-five. As a kid, I loved reading G.I. Joe and The Amazing Spider-Man.
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The Upside-Down Book
In her new novel, Rachel Cusk makes the case for becoming a stranger to yourself
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Pick a Colour
BACK HERE, I can hear a group of women trickle in. Filling the floor with giggles and voices.
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Quebec's Crushing Immigration Policy
Familial separation can have devastating consequences on mental health and productivity
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The Briefcase
What I learned about being a writer from trying to finish a dead man's book
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In the Footsteps of Migrants Who Never Made It
Thousands have died trying to cross into the US from Mexico. Each year, activists follow their harrowing trek
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Blood Language
Menstruation ties us to the land in ways we've all but forgotten
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Dream Machines
The real threat with artificial intelligence is that we'll fall prey to its hype
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Invisible Lives
Without immigration status, Canada's undocumented youth stay in the shadows
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My Guilty Pleasure
"The late nights are mine alone, and I'll spend them however I damn well please"