Story from Weaverville, NC

This is a true story.

A good friend of mine, Jim "Famous James" Bannister  was a part of the South Carolina delegation that traveled to Denver last February for the Olympic Trials to investigate whether Curling should become the Official Winter Olympic Sport of South Carolina.  He gained a good working knowledge of the sport and has become quite a fan.

This past weekend Famous James was deep in the western NC mountains near Weaverville to go grouse hunting.  After a day on the prowl, he stopped in at a country liquor store in search of some much needed refreshment.....well, sure enough, there in the middle of nowhere, the local proprietors had curling on the television. It was a tight moment in the France vs US contest so Famous stopped for awhile to take in an end or two.

Well, the locals took notice of him standing and watching the television and before too long asked, "u kno' what thiz stuff is? U unnerstan it?"

Well, he certainly felt obliged and began his impromptu lecture with the basics.   As more and more customers came in, many would stop with bottles in hand to listen to the discussion.  After rocks,  scoring, and sweeping,  he began to discuss strategy, and while, he was greeted with a mix of understanding nods as well as some mouth-agaped stares,  there was no doubt he was creating some new fans - as bottles began to be opened as the lecture continued.

 As the game grew to its dramatic conclusion, the small crowd of mountaineers cheered on Team USA as they prevailed in their first win. As Famous thanked everyone and began to make his departure, one of the proprietors, a forty-something, mountain born and bred, platinum bleach blond, commented "thankee for splainin all that....I kin tell already this here's lik eatn biled p-nuts....atter ya eat one ya jes kaint stop!"


Curling is coming to the South.