On the early evening of Thursday November 7, 1968

by hoozis on Nov 8, 2009 12:16 AM CST Comment 7 comments

I was in a tavern on Morganford Rd. in South St. Louis. I was 19 years old and was too young to drink so I had a Coke. My Dad and Uncle were having an afterwork beer and were playing shuffleboard.

At about 6 PM I remembered that The St. Louis Blues had an out of town game with the Philadelphia Flyers that night. I was the only Hockey Fan in the house. When the patrons were polled as to whether they wanted to watch my Dad and Uncle didnt care one way or the other. Two couples sitting at a table were getting a buzz on and also didnt care. Ed was sitting at the bar and stated "I watch the Cards, Cardinals and Hawks. I dont understand that shit from Canada and would like to watch anything else."

The Bartender said "come on Ed let the Kid watch his game."

I remember hoping that the game would be good or I might have to look for a TV elsewhere. The game began and if my memory is sound Red Berenson scored 2 goals in the first period. Defenseman Ed Van Impe and Goalie Doug Favell were having their pockets picked big time. Ed started watching and asked what icing and offside were. I drew diagrams on Bar napkins.

As the second period began Berenson went on the attack and soon had a hat trick. I had to explain that also. When Berenson scored his 4th goal everyone in the place started to watch. Other patrons had filtered in in the meantime and about 15 viewers were present. In the 3rd period Berenson scored a 5th goal and rang the goalpost on 2 other occasions. When he scored the 6th goal all present were "celebrating."

Ed became a Hockey fan that night and I never again had to beg to watch Hockey in that establishment. Yes Red Berenson did have a big part in making the Blues a success and dont let those who never saw the 6 goal game tell you the opposite. Samuel M. Smith aka the Berenson Geezer.

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Nice...

I wish my discovery of Hockey, Esp. Blues hockey was as special as this. How cool…

You can't call me a fair weather Blues fan.

by DanGNR on Nov 8, 2009 9:49 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I discovered Hockey in the late winter of 1953,

dad came home one night and told me we had tickets to see the St. Louis Flyers (AHL) Hockey team. I was 5 years old and Dad was smart not to try and explain it to me. We had a black and white TV with a small round screen that had been in a military oscilloscope not many years before. The TV played plenty of War movies with Flyers in the action so I assumed that we were going to see men fly airplanes. Instead we went to a huge building that in following years I would come to know as the St. Louis Arena.
We took our seats behind a wall of chicken wire and soon two groups of oddly dressed men appeared. They had clubs in thier hands and knives attached to their shoes. They went around and around batting objects that looked like black donuts. There were small houses on either end of the floor (Dad told me the floor was ice) and overstuffed men with large clubs guarded these. I wondered if a player who hit a donut into the little house got to eat it. Soon the two groups of men went away and other men with ice scrapers and hot water buckets and mops came out and mopped the ice floor. Then three Zebra men came out followed by the groups of men and a war started. Dad told me the other team was the Rochester Americans. Twice more the war stopped while the ice was scraped and mopped. Everybody including myself yelled a lot. I dont remember any of the players names or who won. I was however fixated on Hockey. Unforttunately the Flyers left St. Louis after that season and the only Hockey I could see was films of NHL games shown on Saturday afternoon TV (Hockey made in Canada). In 1963 the St. Louis Braves (Chicago Blackhawk farm team) set up operations in St. Louis. My Hockey fan status was about to shift to a higher gear………

by hoozis on Nov 8, 2009 8:53 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

By the way

the above story was written by myself the Berenson Geezer.

by hoozis on Nov 8, 2009 9:05 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Great story.

I remember listening to that game, not sure if it was on TV or radio. I remember my mom and me dancing around the living room on every goal. The next day the pic of Red was on the front page of the paper and I cut it out for mom and put it in my scrapbook. Red almost had 8 that night too, unbelievable. Poor Ed Van Impe, he was a pylon that night.

Some days its just not worth chewing through the restraints

by spectr17 on Nov 8, 2009 11:15 AM CST reply actions 0 recs