“I’m too old!” Those are words that I doubt you’ll ever hear out of the mouth of 87-year-old Terry Connor.
One place to find Connor during the winter months is at the Gibsons Curling Club, and he won’t be watching, he’ll be out on the ice competing.
The words you will hear him utter will be more like “You’re never too old to curl!” and he should know.
One of the oldest curlers in the club, Connor was here sliding up and down the ice when the club was born in 1974. He’s an “original” and a founding member of the club.
More than 40 years ago, when the club first started, his wife Marie was deemed a “skip” simply because she was from Edmonton. Anyone from the Prairies must be an expert curler, or so the thought process went. Back in its heyday, the Gibsons Curling Club had more than 400 members and Connor remembers it well.
Those were the days of corn brooms, the kind that took real muscle and bleeding hands to operate. So too he remembers the smokers on the ice with their long, dangling ashes threatening the very integrity of the ice they were curling on.
Those were the days too of a curling club lounge being blue grey in smoke as people pressed against the glass to watch a game. One thing that he says hasn’t changed is the fact that a curling club bar is always a friendly place. It was like that back then, and it’s the same today. Curling was, and is a social sport at its very roots.
When asked why he’s still curling at age 87, he is very matter of fact, “I enjoy the competition and curling with a group of people my own age. Curling’s not an expensive game to play, it’s cheaper than bowling, and it’s mentally and physically important to me at my age.”
Four years ago he found it difficult to keep sliding in the athletic and crouched position that a curling shot demands. Not one to give in though, he moved to stick curling and so his athletic career has been extended by this newest innovation to the game of curling. Stick curling certainly didn’t exist when he started in 1974.
He doesn’t quit there either. He’s one of the most giving volunteers in the club.
He spends his time working at his game, tending the bar and doing other volunteer duties.
For all of us who curl at the Gibsons Curling Club, Connor sets a wonderful example. He’s set the bar high, very high, for the rest of us. Our curling club wouldn’t be what it is today without the efforts of our founding members, particularly those like Connor who continue to participate and give to the game to this day.
If you’re a senior and this story has inspired you, come on out and try a free lesson. For more information about senior curling, please feel free to contact the Gibsons Curling Club at 604-886-7512 or by e-mail at [email protected].
