It was traditional in our small community to end the curling season with a community wide bonspiel. Anyone who wanted to take part could enter their name and would be put on a team. They also invited the grade 8 school students to take part. There was no thought that there would be younger curlers.
The two sheet curling rink and skating rink were in the same building; you could look over the walkway and boards to see them both. The skating ice was made into curling sheets for the annual regular men’s and women’s bonspiels so this was where the season ending ‘spiel took place.
When I was in grade 8, i finally got to be on a team. There weren’t any lessons ahead of time, so with both feet in the hacks and with a mighty push I was into my very first curling game. My family was pretty much into curling so I had a couple of uncles inform me that that wasn’t really how it was done🥴
I spent a lot of time at the rink and grew to love the game of curling and enjoyed it for fun and competitively for many years. Took tons of lessons, became a level 2 curling coach and instructor. Most won’t believe how we taught sweeping with a brush in the ‘olden’ days. My friend and I coached high school girls curling for a few years, and then I
coached a son’s high school team as well. Loved every minute.
Did I tell you the curling rink I started out at was across the street from our house?
