Michele and Jamie Walker were frustrated snowmobilers when they decided to register for curling in Minden in 2019. The long-time cottagers had recently permanently moved to the County.
Jamie said they had time and Michele said snowmobiling was unreliable so “winters were really boring until we joined the curling club.”
Jamie recalls asking if there was a social element on registration night; if people had a drink after playing. He was assured they would have one or two, as they sat with their teammates and competitors for after-game playful teasing and camaraderie. “We have found it to be very much that way. It’s a social club with curling, but of course it’s curling and the social aspect of it is huge. We’ve me a ton of people.”
Michele adds many of their friendships have spilled over into full-time, not just the curling season.
“The social aspect is strong and very beneficial to anybody at all, especially if you are new to town,” Jamie says.
The club is holding its’ registration event Thursday Sept. 12, 4-8 p.m., as its 75th season continues. Curlers will take to the ice the Tuesday after Thanksgiving [Oct. 15], and the four-week Learn-to-Curl begins the following Sunday, Oct. 20.
President Dwight Thomas said he began curling in high school before joining the Minden Curling Club. His foster parents shared their love of the sport with him. At the time, he said Glee club was number one, and curling number two among teens. It was a simpler time, with “less attractions” he recalls while seated in the club lounge.
The current club was built in 1980 thanks to a matching Wintario grant. He said the club remains proud that it did not cost taxpayers anything. The original building was a Quonset hut that the Minden Agricultural Society purchased from CFB Trenton, and rented out to the curlers. It was opened in 1949.
Thomas pulls out a prized original copy of the program for the opening of that first Minden rink 75 years ago.
“There was enthusiasm obviously. When this was built, curlers in those days had to buy their own rocks.”
He recalled a big moment in the late 1950s when the club borrowed $400 to buy curling stones from the Bobcaygeon Curling Club. At the time, there were 44 members. He said it was a time when people celebrated “the roaring game” due to the stones and “slap, slap” of straw brooms.
He also has fond memories of jam can curling at the Minden winter carnival. Large cans of jam were emptied into bellies and then filled with cement and handles for Saturday morning’s 8 a.m. throw across the ice. Public school kids were drawn to the sport. “If it fell over, it didn’t count. It was fun.”
Thomas said there had been too many highlights to recall all of them, but pointed to the 50th anniversary when the club hosted the Ontario Curling Association junior championships. Looking at the program, names such as Jenn Hanna, Julie Reddick [now Tippin] and John Morriss all appear – long before they went on to provincial, national and world curling competitions. “It was a big deal,” Thomas recalls, with 180 seated for a meal next door at the community centre. There were men’s and ladies intermediate, bantam mixed, and Timbits elementary school championships.
As club president for the twelfth or thirteenth time, he’s lost track, he said he is proud to see the club turn 75.
“For me, the first thing is the curling club. This is home. It’s a community thing. It seems to have involved everybody in the community over the years.”
