Monday, July 30, 2007

Bowling Alley Blues


There’s a small bowling alley in our town. Twelve lanes. Smoking still allowed. Furnishings from that great decade of design, the seventies. Formica with built in stainless steel cup holders and ashtrays. Molded plastic seats. But my kids wanted to go and on Fridays from 6-10 PM you can bowl two games, get a hot dog and a “pop” and shoes for $5. Now that’s a deal I can afford.

My kids then proceeded to kick my butt in bowling. I haven’t bowled since junior high so I scored in the um, 60s. My son’s unusual method of taking the ball in both hands, heaving it down the lane like a shot put, and then walking away still scored him in the 80s and a strike. My daughter won with a score of 113 and three strikes. Oh, and did I mention we were playing with those bumpers they put up so you don’t get gutter balls? Um, yeah. Obviously bowling is not my sport.

However, I rallied in the second game when I switched to bowling left handed. Never got any strikes but I managed a few spares and scored 110. My son lost interest during the second game and wandered around checking out the video games and pinball (yes, pinball) machines. So Sissy and I took turns playing his frames.

Two hours later we walked out reeking of cigarette smoke, not quite filled by our hot dogs and "pop," but still pretty happy. We’ll do it again, so anyone have any bowling tips for me?

4 comments:

Jenny said...

Stick with the bumpers, your score will improve :-)

Pencildancers said...

Fun! I love old bowling alleys and old movie theaters. I think it's just full of old stories if you listen hard enough.
And yay for small towns. Love mine!

Heather said...

$5! That's unbelievable!
And wait, you scored a 60 with the bumpers? Now I'm no expert, but at least I can get into the 70s.

Georgiana Daniels said...

That's hilarious! I'm not a blower either, but what memories. POP, LOL, you don't hear that very often. Surprised they're still allowed to have smoke in there, I thought it was banned all across the state. Maybe just restaurants?