It's cold and snowing. I am surrounded by hockey equipment. I personify the Americanized view of the stereotypical Canadian, suffering through the stereotypical Canadian winter. To an American, Canada is nothing more than a source of pastoral snow for Christmas and body-numbing cold and inconvenience the rest of the winter.
Customers stroll in and out, without great frequency, but they all stop and chat.
The store is a link to the past, like the local general store or hardware with the pot bellied stove roaring in the middle. We are all of the boys and men, from coast to coast, who would gather on a snowy Saturday in the hubs of their particular towns to discuss the two major themes that permeate Canadian society - weather and hockey. Unsaid, unspoken, at times unfelt, but always lurking in the subconscious, is the feel that the small hockey store provides. It is a return to simpler times. It is Canadiana within arms reach.