They were made in 1966 when Glen Jackson opened his garage in Barwick. The bright orange sweaters were the talk of the Curl Fort Frances Community Centre last weekend during the Ice Box Days Bon Spiel.
Tom Jackson is custodian of the sweaters and his team wore them for the first draw Friday night while Jim Jackson’s team wore them Saturday afternoon.
“My dad owned the Husky Garage in Barwick and a local lady, Ina Wilson, who owned the café in Barwick, knit the sweaters in Husky orange,” Tom said. “Dad and Jim’s mother, my grandma Mary, she cut out every one of those felt letters and hand stitched the badges then Ina sewed them onto the back of the sweaters.”
The sweaters have made their way to different bon spiels around Canada and the United States, even as far away as Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Those sweaters have been in circulation for 60 years, they’ve gone everywhere from Superior Wisconsin, to Hibbing, Minnesota, to Raleigh North Carolina to St. Paul Minnesota. We take them all over. They’ve probably seen some real parties.”
The Ice Box Days tournament saw dozens of teams of women, men and mixed varieties compete for four divisional championships. A division champions were team Adam Bolen. B Division champs were the Tim Gartner rink who came from Minneapolis, MN to take part.
Locals, team Kevin Busch won the C division and team Dana Anderson won the D division crown.
Names for orange sweater pic:
From Left Craig Armstrong, Jim Jackson, Jim Avis and Ron MacKinnon
