Hastings hockey memories with Bud Wrightly
In late March, well-known Norwood couple Bud and Hazel Wrightly found themselves in need of some essentials and decided to take the short drive to the Hastings Value Mart.
While Hazel went inside for a quick trip around the store, Bud stayed with the car and soon found himself looking across the parking lot and over the fence where two large backhoes were hard at work tearing down the former Hastings Memorial Recreational Centre.
Watching as the walls of the condemned building crumbled in front of him, Bud started reminiscing about the countless hockey games he had played in his younger years on that very site and many of them in that very building.
The original Hastings Memorial Centre was constructed and opened on the site in 1948 and Bud, a teenager at the time, remembers with great fondness playing hockey there during that very first 1948-49 season.
The most memorable event in the building was a series that took place almost 71 years to the day that Bud stood across the fence watching the building fall; it was the final game of the Ontario Midget D championship that took place on March 21, 1949.
A group of area kids between the ages of 14 and 15 had their dreams become reality as they became the first team east of Bowmanville to win the Ontario minor league championship, overcoming their opponents from Cayuga with a 7-2 victory.
At the time, the largest crowd ever to witness a hockey game in the history of Hastings gathered at the newly built Hastings
Memorial Recreational Centre to cheer the team to victory.
While great for morale the huge crowd did not help the (at that time) natural ice surface that was already suffering from spring thaw and consequently some shots on net also included a blade full of water from the melting ice.
Other fond memories surrounding Bud’s early years playing in the centre included the lack of protective padding and the fact that most of their “practice” sessions were impromptu road hockey games held out on the street.
Unfortunately, there are now only two remaining champions left from that 1949 series: Lawrence (Bud) Wrightly and Wayne Dodd. Over the years Bud played many more games, coached many games and watched countless games in the
Hastings Rec Centre.
“It was a real piece of history and a lot of really great memories,” said Bud. “It is amazing really; I was playing in the rink when it was originally built and here I was 71 years later in the same spot watching this one come down.”
The original centre was a tinclad wooden barnlike structure; it was improved over the year and was eventually replaced in 1974 with the building that was just demolished.
Plans for the now-vacant lot are still in the works. However, whatever the site is used for hopefully it will be something that will invoke the same community spirit and create the same lasting and affectionate memories its predecessor did.
National anthem
A positive effect of troubling times is that it can make people feel a bit more patriotic.
Over in Campbellford, Marilyn McMillan and her Trent Drive friends and neighbours have, for the past couple of weeks, taken to the streets (properly socially distanced of course) for a Sunday noon rendition of our national anthem.
Up to 20 people have worn red and white to come out on their lawns or decks to share in the moment of Canadian pride.