Out with a bang

Due to recent and future events, I felt like I needed to go bowling and since Wood Dale Bowl has all you can bowl on Sunday for $10 per person, I went there. I was surprised to see my nephew who bowls on his high school team there at a party.

After 5+ minutes getting into my size 10 1/2 bowling shoes (purchased in 1993 at wholesale cost after someone at the bowling distributorship where I work special ordered then returned them) due to arthritis and the bone spurs on both my heels, I took four careful steps and lofted the 1994 Omega (year made/brand of bowling ball) down the lane. The first game was spent trying to get loose and finding the spot to throw the ball even switching equipment ending with a 166.

The next two games were frustrating due to poor carry and after switching back to the ball I usually use there, I figured things out during the third game as the last 9 shots were in the pocket. Thanks to a pocket 7-10 in the 9th of the third game both of them were 198.

The fourth game continued where I left off. Though the shots were thrown far from identical, the first 7 shots were in the pocket all strikes but a 7 pin on a wall shot that did not carry fully. The eighth frame my left leg gave a bit and I pulled the shot leaving a 3-6 which I only hit the 6 on my spare ball as I favored the leg.

After pocket strikes in the ninth and the first shot of the tenth, I called to my nephew to watch me finish. On the next shot the left leg dragged behind causing the toe to contact the approach first and I wiped out. In spite of that (because I developed a straight armswing), the ball went exactly the direction it should and it was a pocket strike. I got to the point where I was sitting on the approach and my nephew and the person two lanes over came to help but there was no way I would take either hand. I crawled to the ball return and used it to help myself up. I then took my 1988 Black Hammer which I now use as a spare ball, stood at the line, and threw my last shot leaving a pocket 4 for a 244 total.

My nephew was surprised when I told him he saw my last EVER game. I explained I was his age the last time I saw my father bowl and this being the 6th time my left leg either popped or failed in the past 21 years, I have had enough. When I tell people I HATE bowling, this is why. After getting my equipment in my bag and paying for my bowling, I took out my orange towel which I have used for years and put the two bags in the dumpster in the bowling alley parking lot as everything else in it is too old to be reused.

Though I am typing this with a sore left calf, hamstring, and hip, what I am really upset about is missing the spare in the 8th.