Hurry hard
The curling season is yet another victim of the pandemic - can 2020 get much worse?
A few years ago, Sue and I joined our local curling club. It was the natural thing to do. Our families have been sweeping together for years in this town.
“We should get back to curling,” says Sue. “Much better to get out of the house, get a little exercise and socialize a bit than staying locked inside on Friday evenings all winter.”
Reading our local news site, however, I sadly pop her balloon.
“Looks like the season’s been cancelled,” I say.
This is truly unfortunate, not just for the reasons Sue has listed but also because the spirit of curling is exactly what we need more of these days.
When we began to play, we were blessed to have our skip, the friendly giant Uncle Joe, teach us both the code and the finer points of this beguiling tradition.
The game begins with handshakes and wishes of ‘good curling’ between teammates and competitors. Participants launch 40-pound granite stones down sheets of ice amidst animated shouts of “you’re too heavy” or “hurry hard.” It ends with the winners buying the losers a drink. What could be more civilized? What could be more Canadian?
It was more than 250 years ago, the lanky, melancholic Major General James Wolfe read Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard to his troops in flat-bottomed boats as they crossed the Saint Lawrence River on a moonless September night.
The foreboding line from the Elegy, “The paths of glory lead but to the grave…” prompted Wolfe to express to his men, “I would rather have written those lines than take Quebec tomorrow.” He would die hours later in the pivotal battle.
What you may not know, however, is the origins of Canadian curling accompanied our maudlin Major General in that river crossing.
The 78th Fraser’s Highland Regiment, originally assembled at Inverness, Scotland, was an integral part of his army and following the battle would spend the long and brutally cold winter of 1759-60 within the pulverized walls of Quebec.
The rapid onset of cabin fever thanks to the deep freeze in a new land clearly inspired a need for some fun, friendly competition, inclusiveness and camaraderie.
My maternal step-grandfather, Walter Louie, (Lead) apparently always threw perfect weight. I can make no such claim - with a few of my heavier tosses having wound up in the parking lot.
So it was in these challenging circumstances that a group of intrepid young men from the regiment decided to melt several cannonballs, make iron curling stones and become the first curlers in Canada.
Today, the vitality of those highlanders lives on. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are active curlers, the sports channels broadcast bonspiels and “skins” games around the clock and there are clubs in cities and small towns in every province and territory.
“I think when the pandemic is finally over - we will appreciate the simple joys of curling more than ever,” says Sue.
I couldn’t agree more.
