Galen Arnold
Professor Miller
English 110-G
1 February 2019
I never formally planned on playing junior hockey, and for the majority of players, neither do they. There are no guarantees in life, and that holds especially true in the hostile, underground world that is junior. I say underground because junior hockey is likely the most under-recognized component of any sport. If college hockey is a goal of yours, you must go to junior. If you want to play professionally at any level, you must play junior. There is very little joy in the typical one to three years a player may be there. The seasons are long, practices are hard, coaches are relentless, but the worst part is that it all feels like purgatory.
My junior team was located in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts, just outside of Lowell. While I was there, I lived with a billet, or host family in the adjacent town of Dunstable. Lori and Jim Harries, my host parents, are some of the most kind, genuine people I have ever had the privilege of meeting. They have two kids, Kevin and Eric, both of whom are in the second half of their 20s. Additionally, I also lived with another player within my junior organization. Tanner McClure, a fellow Maine native, accompanied me at the Harries’ home. The home environment was a tremendous experience and seemed almost as if it were a family built with fragments from others. Ultimately, Lori and Jim created a familiar environment for me, but most importantly they gave me a home away from home when they had no obligation to do so.
The first time living away from home is a difficult experience for many people. You suddenly find yourself in a new environment where nothing is familiar. Even the chain restaurants, or the retail stores at the mall, the ones you have back home, even those are almost unrecognizable. It is an uncomfortable adjustment, one that takes an unpredictable amount of time. Everywhere you go, you search for something that reminds you of home, your friends, school, something, anything, that you have a connection to. It takes time to realize, but establishing familiarity is a contrived process. The environment is a unique, independent culture established from a cascade of events with no implications on your home. In order to achieve satisfaction with a home away from home, you must find comparable aspects in this new domain.
Lori and Jim were able to embody much of the familiarity from my life in Maine. One of the ways they did this was through food. Not the food itself, but the practice of eating home cooked meals together as what appeared to be a true family. This was something my family rarely actually does. Only on special occasions like holidays and birthdays will you find myself, my parents, and my older brother eating together at the same table. Despite this, while I lived with the Harries, family-style meals were an almost nightly occurrence. Lori reminisced on our year together, “Having an empty nest was becoming lonely, and when you two came along, it was nice to have that feeling of togetherness back.” Jim, however, is a firefighter for the town of Billerica, Massachusetts, and would be forced to miss some of these meals simply due to his demanding schedule. Nevertheless, Lori, Tanner and myself would persevere in Jim’s absence. Lori, a preschool teacher, would often tell us about the ridiculous mischief found in a room full of five year olds while Tanner and I would complain about our team, schedule, and travel plans. Meals would last hours, but we loved every second of it, even after the food vanished.
Opening your home up to complete strangers, especially hockey players, requires a considerable amount of trust to be invested from the start. As a guest, it was my responsibility to respect their home and, most importantly, Jim and Lori. Meanwhile, their only obligation was to put a roof over my head and pay for food. They had no duty to make us feel welcomed. Despite this, Jim and Lori resolved to treat me and Tanner like their own kids. One of the ways they did this was by trying to recreate our lives back home in an effort to make the adaptation as flawless as possible. Additionally, every Sunday and Wednesday, Lori and Jim would make us our favorite meals. Tanner was easy since he had one: shepherd’s pie. We agreed that we would have it on Sundays because after a weekend of games (two was the typical minimum), comfort food felt like a good way to relax. I on the other hand, have never had a favorite meal. However, when Lori asked what my favorite meal was, I did not have an answer, so, to avoid awkwardness, I claimed simplicity by saying chicken and vegetables. She happily obliged, “chicken is my favorite type of meat, I was glad you said that,” and every Thursday while I was there we had chicken and vegetable for supper.
Dinner with the Harries was my favorite part of the day without failure. After a long day of workouts, practice, and meetings, it was a tremendous relief to have an outlet for the stress of balancing my team’s demand with developing relationships with coaches from colleges as well as other junior teams. Looking back on my junior experience, I asked Lori why she wanted to know our favorite meals to which she replied with a hint of a Massachusetts accent, “Because I know leaving home can be hard. Even you and Tanner, I know you guys are pretty mature for your age, but even still it’s a hard time and I just wanted to make it easier.” For as significantly as someone impacted my life, I was honored that someone valued my presence in a similar way.
The food itself was not what reminded me of home and made the Harries’ feel like an extension of my own, but rather it was the effort they made to make that feeling possible. Food, to me, is similar to music where my favorite song, or meal, is constantly changing. There is rarely consistency in my preferences, as I like to try new things often. Despite my perspective, I appreciate the culture surrounding food, and the significant social implications it has. Events are scheduled with food as a critical component and plans made among friends are often times entirely subject to food. Ultimately, food is a pinnacle of social interaction, serving as a catalyst for blooming relationships, ideas, emotions, and serves as an anchor to one’s origin.
Ingredients
Grilled Chicken
- Garlic
- Rosemary
- Thyme
Roasted Broccoli
Roasted Onions
Roasted Bell Peppers
- Garlic powder
