I grew up 17 mi southwest of Boston. In grade school we would bring our hockey sticks and skates to school. We would swap off every week which pond we would play on. Get the bus driver to drop us off at the pond. 1970 I think we played everyday but three in December. I just looked it up It was 6.8° below normal that year in December. In 68 and 69 we played almost the whole month.