Recently I was thinking about certain aspects of my childhood. Namely going to the bowling alley with my dad. When I think about bowling there are some things that stick out. Really loud music (usually country. Not a fan!), cigarette smoke and alcohol scented adults, sticky tables and chairs (don't forget the large amount of gum stuck to the bottom of those tables), and most memorable-- rental shoes... or as I refer to them, "Rental Foot Fungus Recepticals."
As an adult I have realized that bowling has not changed in the least. Most of the folks are outside smoking (no more smoking indoors!!) between throws, most have a pitcher of beer sitting on their table and no matter how much antiseptic they spray into those shoes they are STILL fungus factories! I can barely handle it when my husband borrows my slides to walk out to the mailbox so you can imagine how I feel about rental shoes!
Bowling has this whole separate culture to it. And there are several levels to it. Level One is what I refer to as "The Dabblers." These people go bowling every once in a while and are content to use alley balls and rental shoes. It's just a fun night out. Level Two goes a little deeper. These people may own a ball with a bag and maybe shoes. They may have bowled in a league before but didn't stick with it. They haven't quite sold their souls! Then there is Level Three, "The Fanatics." These are the people that have HUGE bowling bags that look like small coffins with wheels. These bags contain 2 or 3 bowling balls: one for oily lanes, one for dry lanes and the last one just to prove that they have more balls than everyone else. There are other things in the bag too. There are towels to wipe the oil off of the ball, rosin bags to keep your hands dry, wrist braces to keep your hand and wrist in the right position to throw the ball properly, a powder to keep your shoes from sticking to the lane, booties to put over your shoes so that if you go to the bathroom, concession stand or outside to smoke, nothing will get on your shoes and maybe other things I have yet to discover.
Scoring is a whole other world too! In bowling, strikes are a good thing. Actually they are a great thing! The more you get the higher your score. Spares are fine, gutter balls are a disaster. Guess which I get a lot? Splits are no laughing matter either. Unlike gymnastics, splits don't give you more points and unlike football, you don't get 3 points for getting the ball between the pins! One more thing-- you definitely do not want to cross the foul line. This could cause an incredibly funny and an incredibly painful situation. See, there's oil on the lane past the foul line. If you hit that you could go careening down the lane much like Fred Flintstone. Like I said, funny... but painful!
Now that I have said all of this I need to confess something... I am in a bowling league! I own my own ball and of course, my own shoes! What can I say? I live in a rural area and there is not much else to do for fun. But I digress.... Being in a bowling league has proven to be anything but ego stroking. Here's an example: my team has been in last place EVERY season we've bowled. And we have been bowling for like 5 seasons (2 1/2 years). Yeah, we suck! Mostly me. I, Captain Laura, suck at bowling! In my defense though, our losing is a team effort!
So to end this tirade, I will say that even though bowling has its own weird culture and it hasn't changed over the years, it is kind of fun! At least my crew and I have fun and we share a common goal. That goal-- to band together and laugh in the face of losing because winning doesn't seem to be a possibility for us! Our team name says it all... "Last Place
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