I was at the Peterborough Curling Club on a Saturday morning where I used to be a member and also worked there. There was a fun spiel that day, and I was mainly there to cheer my son’s team who was participating in the event. That late morning, while the bartender was busy, I took an incoming call from a man who was wondering if the club had any curling event going on and if him and his friends would be permitted to come to watch some curling. The fact that our bar was opened made it more appealing! Ha!
Seven middle-age men from Pennsylvania, with absolutely no curling knowledge, arrived in early afternoon. They were hockey fans who take a weekend trip every year to a different city to enjoy a local evening hockey game. They always try to find something fun to do during their afternoon and curling was intriguing to them since another friend of theirs who usually joins them is a curler and happened to be playing in a bonspiel that particular weekend.
So, I gave them a quick introduction to the game rules, etc. They decided to join me and watch my son’s game who happened to be playing against our club president. The group of men were having so much fun learning the game and, of course, enjoying a few good Canadian beers. They even gambled amongst themselves on who could make the best shot. They were so funny to watch. They loved the game so much, that they spent the whole afternoon watching and cheering. After the game was over, they had great interaction with the teams and I introduced them to our club president. She welcomed them and gave each one of them a club pin which they wore it proudly.
These gentlemen invited a few of us to join them for the hockey game that evening. They had purchased a box-suite type seating for the game and had several extra tickets. They were so excited about their afternoon curling experience, that during the hockey game, they wondered about the possibility of returning to the club after hockey so they can try to curl, throw and sweep rocks. Since the club’s Saturday Night Social Event was over by that time, myself and a few other curlers were given permission from our club president to return to the club and give them a brief lesson on how to curl. We followed proper procedures for outside club members, safety rules were in place, we loan them shoes, grippers, sliders, brooms, and get this, to get a true curling feeling, one of the men even wore my personal curling kilt! Curling was on! They were having a great time learning to curl and lots of laughs were had by all! They said they couldn’t wait to share their memorable experience with their curling friend back home. According to letters and emails we received, this was by far their favourite weekend trip ever because of their curling experience! Some of them even talked about joining curling.
They wrote two letters to the club and you can read them by clicking the photos:
