Bobby Orr, 65, played hockey for the Boston Bruins from 1966 to 1976 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame at age 31 in 1979. He is president of the Bobby Orr Hockey Group, a sports agency, and author of "Orr: My Story" (Putnam). He divides his time between Cape Cod, Mass., and Florida. He spoke with reporter Marc Myers.

My childhood house in Parry Sound, Ontario, was so cold in the winter you had to flick bits of ice off the light switches in the morning before turning them on. The outdoors was a big part of my life growing up the late '50s and '60s and it toughened me up.

My parents weren't well-off and we didn't own a car, which meant we had to walk everywhere. Wind cut through the house in cold weather and water ran through it during spring thaws. But my parents made coming home special.

Our house was built in 1908, and we moved there when I was 10 in 1958. The two-story house was gray and was built into a hill. You entered the house through an enclosed porch and then went up a few stairs to a front room where we spent all our family time. Upstairs we had three bedrooms. My two sisters slept in one and I slept in another with my two brothers. We had to pass through my parents' bedroom to get to ours.

All the floors were uneven, and everyone had to share one bathroom and one tub—there wasn't a shower. There was no central heating—we depended on one oil-burning stove in the front room to warm the house.

WallStreetJournal  wrote: