The Canadian writer Roch Carrier was born on this day in 1937. One Carrier story, "The Hockey Sweater," has almost iconic status in the country as a light-hearted portrait of the clash between French-Canadian and English-Canadian culture. The text on the back of Canada's 5$ bill gives the story’s opening lines: "The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places-- the school, the church, and the skating rink-- but our real life was on the skating rink." The crisis comes when the young French-Canadian boy finds that the hockey sweater delivered by mail-order is wrong, and from another planet:
Instead of the red, white and blue Montreal Canadiens sweater, Monsieur Eaton had sent us a blue and white sweater with a maple leaf on the front.-- the sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'd always wear the red, white, and blue Montreal Canadiens sweater; all my friends wore the red, white, and blue Montreal Canadiens sweater; never had anyone in my village ever worn the Toronto sweater, never had we even seen a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater.