Curling was once a vital part of winter life and living in Flin Flon. The Uptown, Ross Lake, Willowpark and Creighton rinks hosted morning, afternoon and evening men’s and lady’s leagues, several mine department leagues and Ross Lake junior boys curling. The annual men’s and ladies’ bonspiels had waiting lists for those wanting to compete for the prestigious awards including the HBM&S watches and the Burkett’s Rexall Silverware.
Of course there is a difference between curling and bonspieling as it existed back then. Curling is when two teams of four persons per team hurl sixteen rocks for the purpose of accumulating the highest score. Bonspieling, on the other hand, is when a variety of people socialize at smokers, visit beer parlors, house parties, and partake of the bottle hidden behind the scoreboard – all accomplished with a minimum of sleep. A bonspieling skip building a team would ask prospective players two questions. “What position can you play? What do you drink?”
Flin Flon kids of the ‘40s and ‘50s (my era) were introduced to “the roaring game” through open-air cordwood/jampail curling events sponsored by the Community Club. Curling was also a big deal at Hapnot High (on the hill). Students were obliged to participate Saturday mornings over the winter season with grade nine students assigned the lead position, grade ten, second and so on. Thus if you managed to get to grade twelve you became a skip – no matter your ability to actually perform this role. Nevertheless, high school curling did provide an opportunity for social mixing of students from different grades, classrooms and neighbourhoods.
The teams, 100 strong, would gather at either the Uptown, Ross Lake or Willowpark curling rinks for the 8 am, 10 am or noon draw. Most of the boy leads had some idea of the game but many of the girls had a somewhat lesser appreciation of the art of curling. There were problems figuring out the difference between the inturn and outturn. Sweeping was also a challenge thus resulting in much bellering by the skips. Fun!
I recently had a phone visit with Ron Wiebe, a school chum from those days, who reminded me about the Uptown high school curler’s prayer to the Curling God that we would not get the dreaded 8 am draw at Willowpark as is required getting up and out in time to make the long walk in -30 degree weather over the Ross Lake ice path. We’d arrive at the rink in a semi-comatose state only to discover that half the curlers hadn’t shown up – and that the temperature on the ice somehow seemed ten degrees colder than outdoors.
The Hapnot curling season finale bonspiel was generously supported by local merchants. There were a few hot-shot rinks but most of us floundered and fluked our way to either dismal defeat or some small degree of victory. In any case, the ‘spiel was a great mixer for the students, loads of fun and, what the heck, a couple of days away from school.
High school curling is no longer part of the school program and, as is the case in many communities, league curling in Flin Flon has somewhat fallen by the wayside for any number of reasons. The Uptown Rink is the sole survivor with men’s, ladies’ and mixed league curling. The senior Hot Stove men’s and ladies’ league curls twice weekly with a social to follow. Curling enthusiasts continue to promote the game but, according to local sources, their efforts have not enjoyed great amounts of success to date. The fear is that once curling goes it will be very difficult to bring it back. Too bad as Flin Flon has such a rich curling heritage and, what the hay? It’s a great game!
Here’s a parting Flin Flon Bonspiel Legend. Back in the day, a curler who was known to carry a mickey of whiskey in his back pocket slipped and fell on the ice. As he was helped to his feet he was heard to say, “I feel a liquid running down my leg. Lord, I hope it’s blood!” Ha!
Curling notes: I noted while watching the Roar of the Rings that few players lift the rock on the back swing as we had to do back in the day. Natural ice at -30 degrees required a mighty heave-ho to avoid ‘hogging’ the rock.
Happy New Year, eh?
