• hockey
• Meagher

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Here comes the Big Melt of 2008

posted by jmeagher at 11h40

Enlarge

John Calderone said 2008 was a great year for backyard rinks like his (John Morstad)

Winter is finally over. Well, let’s hope so.
And now comes the Big Melt.

Mountains of dirty snow still remain on nearly every corner of the West Island, but will surely disappear faster than it came.

For those who built their own backyard rinks, the winter of 2008 will be remembered as a vintage year - even if near-record snow falls meant plenty of extra shoveling.
“It was a great year for backyard rinks,” said John Calderone, whose Kirkland rink was featured in The Gazette back in December.

“We skated at least 70 times,” said Calderone, who made the frozen sheet for his two hockey-mad daughters.

But even John Calderone finally waived the snow-white flag in early in March after yet another snowstorm.

“That last storm in March did it,” he said. It was just too much snow. There was nowhere to put it.”

“Now it’s all up against my house and against the fence. Melting.”

Calderone opened his rink the first week of December, which is relatively early compared to past years.

“Rain and snow are fine. It’s just warm weather that’s bad for the rink,” he said

Calderone did all the shoveling himself, except for once.
“My neighbour came over with his snowblower and helped out,” he said.

So, will the Calderone rink reappear again next year?
“Absolutely,” he said

“If you want to do it, you can.”