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Roch Carrier and The Hockey Sweater
by Tamara
Tarasoff
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 Maurice
Richard's hockey sweater.
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Roch Carrier's story, The Hockey Sweater, is a tale of
childhood,
hockey, and a very disappointing mail-order mix-up. Discover the story
behind
this account of life in the small village of Sainte-Justine, Quebec, in
1946.
What was it like to be a fan of Maurice Richard and the Montréal
Canadiens
in the winter of 1946, and why did Roch Carrier write about this period of
his
life?
Select The Hockey Sweater to hear a shortened version of this
famous
story and see illustrations from the book. Select the other titles to
listen
to Roch Carrier speak about life and hockey in rural Quebec, his
admiration for
Maurice "Rocket" Richard, the importance of the Eaton's
catalogue
in his family's life, and how he came to write The Hockey
Sweater.
Images from historic catalogues and photographs, including photographs of
objects
in the Canadian Museum of Civilization's Maurice Richard collection,
accompany
each excerpt.
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Sainte-Justine, Quebec
[Listen to
audio (1.4 Mb)] 
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Map
showing Sainte-Justine.
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"Sainte-Justine is a very small village. I believe
the
population was below 2,000. It was a problem for the priest because the
next
village was 2,500 and the priest was having better tax revenue than our
priest.
Our priest was certainly campaigning for our parents to produce more kids.
But
when I was there I don't think they ever reached more than 2,000, so
it
was very small. There was one main street. The village is built on a hill.
And,
on top of the hill, like in many villages in Quebec, there was the church.
So,
to go to the skating rink, we had to put on skates down the hill, climb
the hill
on the street - in those days they weren't cleaning the
streets during
winter time - and in front of the church we would recite a very
short prayer,
'Let's hope we beat them, thanks God.' And then we would
slide
down the hill to the skating rink. So it was a big adventure, every day
after
school."
— Roch Carrier interview
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The Meaning of Hockey
[Listen to audio (1.8 Mb)]
"In a way, I think the hockey rink was more
important
than the school. I can say that even if I was not a good player, I was a
very
bad player. In fact I was the worst player on the team. I was perhaps the
one
who was trying harder than anyone else, and I kept trying, but I was the
worst
player. When I think of that, and even if I was successful in school, the
real
experience was taking place on the skating rink. Competing, asserting
yourself,
finding tricks to go through the defence, trying again and again and again
to
improve yourself. That was part of growing up. And then having the girls
around
to watch you, it was a good feeling. So you were learning something about
yourself,
and about the girls, and about the world, and what's there. And you
have
dreams also. Some of us were dreaming of playing on the radio. Playing on
the
radio, that's how we knew hockey …
"In those days, there were not three hockey games every night, there
was
no television, there was almost nothing. So the hockey game on Saturday,
it was
something as big as the news from the war. It was bigger. On Sunday
morning at
the Mass, on the balcony of the church, hockey was much more important
than anything
that was happening in Europe at the war at the time."
— Roch Carrier interview
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Rocket Richard
[Listen to
audio (1.4 Mb)]
"Maurice Richard started to play in '42, so I
was five
years old. My grandfather was following hockey. I heard the name Maurice
Richard
at this age from my grandfather. And then we started to listen to the
games on
the radio. Maurice Richard was in any conversation. We're going to
the
barbershop; we're going to the general store. Maurice Richard was
there
…
"Maurice was a simple man, a man like anybody else, tough, not
terribly
well educated, somebody who was not blowing his own horn. He had himself
children
so he was a family man, very simple; he was a French Canadian like all of
us.
And he was tough. And he would never fear anybody, so we were very
sensitive
to that. And he became the best hockey player, so that was something. And
he
was one of us. He was very close to our French-speaking community. And we
didn't
know at the time that all over Canada some people were thinking the same
way
and they were not like us. We didn't know that."
—Roch Carrier interview
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Hockey Pads vs. The Eaton's Catalogue
[Listen to
audio (1.0 Mb)]
"I wrote in a book about Rocket Richard and I
tell
about me getting some new felted pads at Christmas time and not only they
were
felted but they were leather and not only they were leather but they were
sticks,
wooden sticks. So the perfect pads at the time. And I wore those pads and
somebody
shot the puck at my legs. It was very painful and I just put the pads
aside and
I went back to my Eaton's catalogue because the catalogue was thick.
It
was a bit heavy I must say …
We cut pieces of the tube (from inside the rubber tire of a car) and this
rubber
would attach and keep tight the catalogues on our legs. Those were the
best pads,
a little bit heavy I must say, but they were the best pads ever.
—Roch Carrier interview
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The Eaton's Catalogue
[Listen to
audio (879 Kb)]
"There was Eaton's catalogue. They were
the best,
based on the feeling, the culture and the family. There was nothing like
Eaton's.
Level two, it was Simpson's. But I will explain, I never understood
that,
but Simpson's was not as good as Eaton. That was the feeling in my
family
and my grandmother would say so. And then there was Dupuis. Dupuis was
third
position. But they were French speaking and they deserved some kind of
support,
help. We had to do something. But they were not the best one. The best one
in
my family was Eaton."
—Roch Carrier interview
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Writing The Hockey Sweater
[Listen to
audio (2.2 Mb)]
"If you go back to history books describing the
seventies,
you will discover that there was a question that was all over Canada, and
the
question was, "What does Quebec want?" It was nationalism
getting
very high. There was a lot of push for separation from Canada, and Canada
did
not understand what was taking place. And the classical question was
"What
does Quebec want?"
"So I was invited by CBC to write an answer to that question, and I
worked
really hard for three, four weeks to write something, and the result was
something
I didn't like. It was a flat essay, it was as dull as an editorial
in a
newspaper. I didn't want to put my name on that. I was a young
writer with
a great future. I was very proud. So I said, "No I cannot do it, I
don't
do it." And CBC told me, "Yes, you must do something because
we have
some time reserved for you, and we already announced you so you have to
give
something." I said, "No I won't do it." They said,
"Write
about whatever you want to write about." So, having prepared myself
to
answer that question, "What does Quebec want?"
"I went back to my table and I started to think when was it when I
felt
that I was little me, little Roch, not my mother's son, not my
father's
son, not my brother's brother, not my big brother's brother,
all
that. When was it that I felt I was really myself? And I remember it was
when
I put on my skates and my Eaton catalogues on my legs, and I stood up, and
I
was taller than my mom, and I had a stick in my hands, so I was stronger
than
my brother, and I felt that I was little me. So I started to write about
that
and it turned into the Hockey Sweater story."
—Roch Carrier interview
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The Hockey Sweater
by Roch Carrier
[Listen to
audio (3.3 Mb)]
(Voice: Charles Moisan Willis)
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I remember very well the winter of 1946. We all wore the same uniform
as Maurice
Richard, the red, white, and blue uniform of the Montréal
Canadiens, the
best hockey team in the world. We all combed our hair like Maurice
Richard, and,
to keep it in place we used a kind of glue - a great deal of glue.
We laced
our skates like Maurice Richard, we taped our sticks like Maurice Richard.
We
cut his pictures out of all the newspapers. Truly, we knew everything
there was
to know about him.
On the ice, when the referee blew his whistle, the two teams would rush
at
the puck. We were five Maurice Richards against five other Maurice
Richards,
throwing themselves on the puck. We were ten players all wearing the
uniform
of the Montréal Canadiens, all with the same burning enthusiasm. We
all
wore the famous number 9 on our backs.
How could we forget that?
One day, my Montréal Canadiens sweater was too small for me and
it
was ripped in several places. My mother said, "If you wear that old
sweater,
people are going to think we are poor."
Then she did what she did whenever we needed new clothes. She started
to look
through the catalogue that the Eaton Company in Montreal sent us in the
mail
every year. My mother was proud. She never wanted to buy our clothes at
the general
store. The only clothes that were good enough for us were the latest
styles from
Eaton's catalogue. My mother did not like the order forms included
in the
catalogue. They were written in English and she did not understand a
single word
of it. To order my hockey sweater, she did what she always did. She took
out
her writing pad and wrote in her fine schoolteacher's hand,
"Dear
Monsieur Eaton, Would you be so kind as to send me a Canadiens'
hockey
sweater for my son Roch who is ten years old and a little bit tall for his
age?
Docteur Robitaille thinks he is a little too thin. I'm sending you
three
dollars. Please send me the change if there is any. I hope your packing
will
be better than it was last time."
Monsieur Eaton answered my mother's letter promptly. Two weeks
later,
we received the sweater.
That day I had one of the greatest disappointments of my life! Instead
of
the red, white, and blue Montréal Canadiens sweater, Monsieur Eaton
had
sent the blue-and-white sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I had always
worn
the red, white, and blue sweater of the Montréal Canadiens. All my
friends
wore the red, white, and blue sweater. Never had anyone in my village worn
the
Toronto sweater. Besides, the Toronto team was always being beaten by the
Canadiens.
With tears in my eyes, I found the strength to say: "I'll
never
wear that uniform."
"My boy," said my mother. "first you're going
to try
it on! If you make up your mind about something before you try it, you
won't
go very far in this life."
My mother had pulled the blue and white Toronto Maple Leafs sweater
over my
head and put my arms into the sleeves. She pulled the sweater down and
carefully
smoothed the maple leaf right in the middle of my chest.
I was crying: "I can't wear that."
"Why not? This sweater is a perfect fit."
"Maurice Richard would never wear it."
"You're not Maurice Richard! Besides, it's not what
you
put on your back that matters. It's what you put inside your
head."
"You'll never make me put in my head to wear a Toronto
Maple Leafs
sweater."
My mother sighed in despair and explained to me: "If you
don't
keep this sweater which fits you perfectly I will have to write to
Monsieur Eaton
and explain that you don't want to wear the Toronto sweater. Mr
Eaton understands
French perfectly but he's English and he's going to be
insulted because
he likes the Maple Leafs. If he's insulted, do you think he'll
be
in a hurry to answer us? Spring will come before you play a single game,
just
because you don't want to wear that nice blue sweater."
So I had to wear the Toronto Maple Leafs sweater.
From The Hockey Sweater by Roch Carrier, illustrated by
Sheldon Cohen.
Montréal: Tundra Books, 1984, ©House of Anansi Press, 1979.
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