Memories aren't always pretty, and images are not always gilt-edged celebrations with the confetti raining down and teary group hugs.
Most remember the last shot. All remember the winners.
My lasting image of the 2008 Brier, however, will be that of a squat plumber named Gerry Adam, his shirt half-untucked, padding down a hallway in the bowels of the MTS Centre Saturday.
Adam's gait was a little like Charlie Chaplin, his weight shifting from side-to-side.
He was walking alone. Defeated. Devastated.
It was mere moments after the emotional Saskatchewan second, along with his teammates, had seen their Brier dreams die hard on frozen ice -- an extra-end 8-7 loss to Ontario's Glenn Howard in the Saturday semifinal.
But what made Adam's solitary march to the player's dressing room more poignant isn't that Saskatchewan's Pat Simmons lost, but how.
Friday night: A free pass to the Brier final appeared all but certain for our fellow stubble-jumpers. The decided underdogs had the undefeated Albertans on the ropes in the 1-2 Page playoff, needing only an open hit to seal the deal. It was a shot Simmons has made a thousand times. Could do it blindfolded.
But as the Saskatchewan rock floated down the ice, the unthinkable. A pick. Just like that, the rock veered sideways, only glancing off the Alberta stone.
Alberta 8, Saskatchewan 7.
What were the odds of Simmons missing that gimme?
"One in a thousand," Adam replied, with a rueful smile. "But that's part of the game."
No, that's part of a curse. That's the curling gods touching Martin's shoulder and giving Simmons the shiv.
Still, on Sunday, Adam kept a brave face, despite the fact his moist eyes were a road map of red.
"I've been around for a lot of years," he reasoned, referring to a quarter-century of competitive curling. "I've seen everything under the sun. I've lost like that before. I've won like that before."
But Adam had never lost a Brier playoff game like that before. Sure, there was the time back in 1999 when he was a third for Saskatchewan's Gerald Shymko, and they lost the semifinal to Quebec's Guy Hemmings, who drew to the button for an extra-end 6-5 victory.
This was different, though.
"We had it in our hands," Adam said. "We had relatively simple shots. We didn't have to go through ports. The chances are miniscule to not make that shot. But that's sports, though. That's the way it goes."
True, the difference between victory and loss can be measured in inches or split seconds. But the difference in the spoils cannot.
This year's Brier offered a wealth of cash and privilege. A total of $144,000 in Sport Canada funding over two years ($1,500 per player per month), another $40,000 in cresting money, and automatic berths into the 2008 worlds next month in Grand Forks, the 2008 Continental Cup, the 2009 Strauss Canada Cup and, perhaps most important of all, the 2009 Canadian Curling Trials qualifier.
Instead, Adam will head back to Yorkton empty-handed.
On Monday, he will go back to being a humble plumber. And on Wednesday or Thursday, the impact of this weekend will sink in. If there is a place for irony, it will hit Adam while he's working on a sink.
"I was this close to a Brier final and I may never get a chance like that again. That's the hard part," he conceded. "Now it's not guaranteed in stone... I don't many years left. I have to get back to the real world after the Olympic Trials era (November 2009). I'll probably shut it down after that.
"So you kind of say, 'Geez, was that my chance to win a Brier?'", he added. "But if it doesn't happen, it's only a game. I'm going to feel down for a little bit, but after that go back to work on Monday and see what happens."
Thousands of fans watched Gerry Adam curl this past week. Tens of thousands more watched him curl on television.
On Monday, back in Yorkton, no one will be watching him unclogging a pipe or installing a toilet.
That's the thing about curling. The losers aren't consoled by their multimillion-dollar salaries or their endorsements and fame.
All that awaits them is the long walk back to the dressing room, carrying with them a broom and lingering thoughts of 'What if?"
"Maybe that's what's meant to be," Adam concluded. "You never know."
An aging plumber. A fading dream. A pick on that last damn rock.
A long, lonely walk, indeed.
randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca
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