📍Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada
1948 – 1962“Bobby Orr grew up in Parry Sound, a small town on the rocky shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario, surrounded by lakes, pine forests and long, hard winters. His parents, Doug and Arva, were a hard-working, blue-collar couple; his father worked at the local explosives plant and had been a fine hockey player himself, and his mother worked in a coffee shop. There were five children, and the family's values were simple: work hard, respect others, and look after your own. In winter the frozen Seguin River, which runs through the middle of town to the bay, became Bobby's rink. From the age of four he skated there and on the town's outdoor rinks for hours at a time, chasing pucks with his friends until dark, and then shot pucks against the garage at home in the evening. He was small for his age, but he could skate, handle the puck and see the game like no one else. People in Parry Sound liked to say only his father could skate faster than him. In 1960, at twelve, he played for the Parry Sound bantam team in a tournament and was spotted by Boston Bruins scouts, astonished that the slight defenceman barely left the ice. The coach Wren Blair visited the Orr family again and again to win their trust, and at fourteen Bobby left home to play junior hockey in Oshawa. With the Bruins he transformed the role of the defenceman and won two Stanley Cups. He has always credited his parents and his hometown, and he returns regularly to Parry Sound for the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame inductions, in a town that still feels like home.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today