A Newbie’s Adventures - Curling Day In Canada

A Newbie’s Adventures

When we started seeing each other, in June 2019, I lived in Vancouver and Denise lived in Toronto.
We continued to see each other a couple of times over the summer, and into the fall.
When fall rolled around, and knowing that I was a curler, Denise asked if there was someplace she could learn to curl, as she was looking to try something new.
As luck would have it, she was a short walk to the Royal Canadian Curling Club. I gave her all the information I could find, and she signed up with the group headed by Tony Gilroy. 9-11pm Sunday nights for eight sessions.

She took to it like a fish to water.

She called me one night and said some guy named John was in the club hawking calendars and that it was quite a fuss. It was Epping.
She even bought tickets to see the Pinty’s in Toronto. (Later cancelled due to the pandemic)

She was having so much fun, I thought she might be interested in playing in a Bonspiel, so I asked,
‘Do you want to meet my friends and I in St Paul Minnesota for a mixed bonspiel?’
‘But I just learned how to play, I’ll be crappy!’, she replied.
‘It doesn’t matter, it’s all about the fun’, said I.
So Denise flew from Toronto, and we flew from Vancouver and the team played in the Winter Carnival Bonspiel.
Now, the Bonspiel runs at the end of January during the annual Winter Carnival, and tradition has it that the royalty (local business people) from the Winter Carnival visit the curling club, where they have an honorary throwing of a rock, and a small ceremony.
By surprise, the royalty called upon our team to come forward, where we swore our fealty and they knighted us, and gave us medals and a lovely certificate.
It was a wonderful surprise from the organizers, who were grateful we had made such an effort to come to their spiel. Denise couldn’t believe how nice everyone was, and how much encouragement she received when they found out she was a newbie. We had a terrific time.
(By the way, the theme was Game Night. We went as Curlers Against Humanity)

Six weeks later the world went into lockdown.

We continued our relationship as best we could, and she ended up moving to Vancouver. We’re still together.
And there ya have it.

Good curling everyone!

Andrew

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