We’d had a couple of talks about respect for women and girls before that when he, like generations of boys before him, put girls down as being inferior simply because of their gender. I hoped he’d be okay because it was a live sport. When the teams raced out for warm ups they were all bulked up in padding, black skates, gloves, and helmet with face guard, you couldn’t tell them from droids except for a lot of ponytails.
After watching them work the rink for a couple of minutes Tio said, “Hey, Grampy! I think these are women.”
I looked at the tickets like I was making sure, “Hmm, you’re right! This is women’s hockey,” was all I said.
We watched in silence for a few more minutes and then he said, “Man, they’re really good!”
That’s the last word we heard on that. The game went into 4 overtime periods and he screamed his head off for the local girls. The following season I had to duck to avoid a puck in the head that one of those women shot into the stands. Tio still has that puck. I think we should go again soon. We’ve seen some great games.