With his Coke-bottle glasses and hinged knee braces, CBC personality Grant Lawrence admits his 10-year-old self was an unlikely hockey fan.
But a fan he was and, on the first day back at school after Christmas break, he proudly donned his brand new Buffalo Sabres T-shirt.
That pride was soon deflated, Lawrence told the audience at a live TV taping of The Flame: Holiday Season Edition on Nov. 7 at The Cultch, where he was one of 12 local performers to share their humorous, heartwarming and sometimes painful Christmas memories.
The biggest, meanest boy in school who happened to be a star hockey player was not impressed with Lawrences Christmas acquisition.
He reached down to me, grabbed me by the shirt, pulled me up, and screamed into my face Buffalo Sabres suck, kid, and then threw me down onto the hall where my glasses went off clattering and my knee braces locked up.
It was a traumatizing experience for young Lawrence. It was also the last time he wore that shirt.
This bully continued to torment Lawrence and, by the end of high school, Lawrence not only hated his bully, he also, by association, hated hockey.
Twenty years later, a 30-something Lawrence decided it was time to reclaim the sport he loved and, with a group of friends, he formed a beer-league hockey team the Vancouver Flying Vees.
Lawrence, the goalie, was warming up in the crease before a Christmastime game when, to his horror, he spotted a familiar hulk skating at the opposite end of the rink.
All of a sudden I felt like that cowering kid on the elementary school floor, shivering and shaking, Lawrence says. I was trying to hide in my mask and goalie gear and I just wanted to roll up into a ball and disappear.
But the puck dropped. And, in the triumphant finale of his story, Lawrence told the captivated audience how he managed to deflect a last-minute breakaway shot by his charging bully.
I just get the tip of my middle finger on [the puck], the finger that I wanted to show him my entire life, and the clock rolls down, the buzzer goes and the Vancouver Flying Vees win the game 3-2! he exclaims.
Right then I learned that revenge is best served on ice.
The Flame: Holiday Season Editionispresented with Metro Vancouver as part of itsCreate Memories, Not Garbagecampaign. It will be broadcast onShaw TV, Channel 4in December and will be available to view at MetroVancouver.org. Read WE Vancouver for more Christmas tales from this seasons storytellers.
