Windsor Curling Club meant community, say long-time members

JENNIFER HOEGG

NovaNewsNow.com

When a handful of men gathered Dec. 11, 1908 to discuss forming a curling club, they couldn’t have foreseen what the Windsor curling scene would look like in 2007. Almost a hundred years after that first meeting, the Windsor Curling Club is a vibrant group of more than 200 hard-working members: men and women, young and old.

Indoor curling came to Windsor in 1909, when the Pesaquid Curling Club built a small rink for approximately $400. Measuring only 20 or 40 feet in width and 150 feet in length, the building was paid for by the sale of $10 stock and $5 annual subscriptons. From the fall of 1909 until 1917, a lively group of curlers enjoyed their tiny rink. Notes on games played against other Nova Scotia clubs deem many events to be “good ice and a good time!”

Ceasing operation during the last year of World War I, the Club resumed in 1919. Records are spotty between 1919 and the late ‘30s, but in the early ‘40s, the Windsor Curling Club resided in a larger rink and was raising funds to add an ice plant.



Members for more than 50 years

Arnie Smith remembers helping to lay the gravel for the new ice plant in 1946, four years after his first time playing in the rink. Arnie and his wife, Helena, have been members of the Club for more than 50 years. Both have served on the executive for years, including as president. Helena notes she has “been everything but the treasurer!”

During one of Arnie’s terms as president, the pipes laid in 1946 broke and needed to be replaced. The replacement took time and money but, he says, “all the members rallied around.”

Helena adds, “it has always been a good club with hard workers. We just had a new dehumidifier and heater put in and redid the kitchen. Members worked so hard; through the years, all the work has been done by volunteers.”

Even with artificial ice, there were weather challenges for the Club, Arnie remembers. “In ’53, there was a big bonspiel for Apple Blossom. It was a hot June day, so (members) were running water on the roof to try to keep the temperature inside down.”



Positive changes

While participation has always been good, other things have changed over the years. When Arnie joined in 1953, women weren’t allowed in the men’s clubhouse.

By the time Helena joined in ‘56, women had access to that part of the club, but it wasn’t until the ‘70s that the men’s and women’s clubs joined.

“The women did their own thing and the kitchen belonged to the women in those days. Once a week, the women’s club put on a fundraising supper. Thursday afternoon, the town’s shops would close and everyone would head to the club for supper.”

Other positive changes have happened through the Club’s long history. “They used to have an election of skips. You had to curl for years before they could put your name in,” Helena recalls. Arnie remembers, “it was just a popularity contest, really.”

Also, before the mid-‘50s, the Club didn’t have a bar or a liquor license. Members had to bring their own drinks and the Club had to record corkage carefully.



Fond memories

The Smiths have many fond memories of the social element of membership. Helena reminisces, “on Saturday night, the Curling Club b was the place to go. You either paid admission or performed. One year, a bunch of us dressed up as Can-Can girls. The practices were even more fun than the performance!

“We had one member who played piano and she could play just about anything. Everyone would sing. Members came from all over the county -- even the Navy base at Newport Corner had members.”

New Year’s Eve was the biggest party of the year for decades, with music and laughter filling the clubhouse.

While memorabilia and photos were lost in the recent fire, memories and friendship live on.

“It was a big loss and it was such a social place. The friends we’ve met have been wonderful. Every tournament was like a reunion. I’m so glad I had the experience to be a member there” Helena says, remembering the many people with whom she has played and socialized.

“Oh, some of the characters who curled on Saturday night! Dick Taylor’s father was one of them; he curled until he was 93.”



Oh, and curling, too!

There was curling, too, of course, and the game has changed through the years. Helena recalls taking a workshop in new strategies in the ‘70s. “Then we went to New Glasgow to play and beat everyone! Ruth Taylor and myself went up the Valley and instructed other curlers in the new techniques.”

All of Windsor enjoyed the rink. Arnie and Helena recall “when the curling was over in the spring, they used to let everyone come down and skate. Sometimes in the summer, they would have a fair in the rink.”

Over the years, the building saw many changes. The upstairs clubhouse was remodeled a number of times. In the ‘70s, the tiny, old windows were replaced when “Lovett Bishop donated larger windows and chairs.”

Although no longer a Saturday night party spot, the rink was still a busy place. The Smiths played in the mornings, with senior curlers. Helena recounts that “women curl Mondays, men Tuesdays, Wednesdays are competitive mixed, Thursdays are social mixed and Friday is just fun.”

With more than 200 members of all ages, the rink was busy most of the time. “Camaraderie,” she said. “It just vibrates with it!”

What will the first winter in decades without curling be like? “Wolfville and Sackville and other rinks have offered us some ice time, but it’s too early to speculate,” Arnie says.

Helena adds, “someone asked me the other day, ‘What are you going to do with Arnie?’ I don’t know - we may have to take up snowshoeing.”

Despite the loss, the Smiths are optimistic about the future. The rink didn’t have a cement surface under the ice, so the ice was never level. “Before the causeway, they used to joke that the gypsum train going by shifted the ice, or it was the tide coming in. Maybe (when the rink is rebuilt) we’ll have level ice!”