Note to Peter Bryden and Stephen Low. Could either one of you send this story
out to all our members. I have sent it to Kristy at the club already.
Note to Kristy…Do what you wish with this , Alan.
EPISODE 529 HIGH PARK CURLING CLUB: COVID 19 PANDEMIC RAGES… DOCUMENTED… FEB. 7, 2022alan skeochFeb. 7, 2022FIVE years from now the pandemic will only be a memory. So I thought documentation seemed necessary. Our league, the so calledTeachers League has been a fixture at the High Park Curling Club for as long as I can remember. Before that, several teachers werepart of the founding group deep in the past. Even before the great Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918 – 1919. We survived one pandemicand will likely survive this one as well. If we are careful!Today, Feb. 7, 2022 we are trying to curl in the midst of the worst epidemic in Canadian history. What is it like to curl when that minisuclevirus is hanging in the air? It is hell!
Alan SkeochThe High Park Curling Club…oldest curling club in Toronto
The High Park Curling Club front deck. Leisure and good times.
There were better times deep in the past. One winter we even curled on the ice of Grenadier Pond.SEE THAT RED STAR ON MY HAT…SYMBOL OF THE TIMES
History: Big events were happening when we celebrated the Grand Match on Grenadier Pond. The Berlin Wall was coming down asthe Soviet Union imploded. My son, Kevin, was working in Slovakia and sent me this Russian Field Officers hat from their fiascoin Afghanistan. Costume. Also I was able to buy an old buffalo skin coat made from the skins of the buffalo slaughter in the Canadian West.The Grenadier Ice was thick enough for curlers. If it failed we would go down to join the Grenadier soldiers who supposedly drownedhere in the war of 1912. That same summer we rented a rowboat and recorded a CBC radio story on our tongue in cheek search forthe heavy cannons left by the unfortunate Grenadiers. The Grenadier story was a myth. One of our sons, a diver,got to the bottom of the pond and reported ,“Dad, there is nothing down there but muck, I rammed my arm in up to my shoulder and found nothing.” If our Grand Match of curlingwent through the ice future generations would find our curling stones and maybe, just maybe, they would find that Soviet Red Star on my hat.And a story would be written about the Soviet agent who drowned at Grenadier pond. A story, Not the truth. A story just like thestory of the British Grenadier retreating in the War of 1812.And that is why we need this photo essay about the terrible years of 2020 to 2022 when a virus put us all in a state of fear. A true story.Other years we had grand celebrations at the High Park Curling Club
Costume varied.This curler would be denied entrance to the High Park Curling Club on this day, Feb. 7, 2022…Why?We are fearful of contamination. If one of just comes down with Covid 19, then all bets are off. Shutdownwill happen. Our club executive fear that disaster could destroy the club so some stringent rules are beingapplied.
Either pass the test or stay home. Most of us are triple vaccinated…all are double vaccinated
Kristy is expected to make sure anyone curling here has documents to prove it.
Ken JinkinsonThis document is needed each time I enter the High Park Curling Club.
Kristy Rawluk – checking documentation of each member’s vaccinationKen Jinkinson…signing in at checkpoint one
There was a time when curling did not require policing and the trophies were all we worried about
Bob Murray…checking in
Ellen Freedman….writer of plays, perhaps the great play about curling to come in the future
Peter Morris…lead curler, Skeoch team. (We have three leads…Shaymus and Joe are waiting in the wings)
Peter Brydan, Chairman of our League
Peter Brydan and Bill McKay
There was a time when we could actually talk to each other.
Stephen Low…executive memberGlen Grey, vice…takeout specialist.
Dave Dingwall
Monica Gemeinhardt, our team second, threw a perfect rock….RIGHT ON THE NOSE!MONICA got him RIGHT ON THE NOSE
TEAM SKEOCH: Monica Gemeinhardt, Glen Grey, Peter Morris
and Alan Skeoch (red coat)
