Last night I met Matt (the other 4th grade teacher) and his bowling team at the local bowling alley. There's an Ann Arbor School District League that they play in. Linda normally plays with them too, but she was out of town. (By the way, yesterday at school went pretty well, considering the MEAP tests ended Thursday, Linda was out, and the weather was crazy.) It's a really casual league, so it's not cut-throat competitive. It was fun to meet people who are in the district, but not at our school. Matt's team won their game, so that was fun too.
I haven't been to a bowling alley in quite some time. We used to go a lot when we were in high school. It wasn't until college that I had my 5 minutes of bowling fame. I was on Bowling for Dollars! It was part of a promotion where student groups from Marquette were invited to compete and be on TV. Before we went on air, we had to fill out questionnaires about ourselves so the host would have some material to use for our "pre-bowling" interview. Under hobbies, I listed "beer, brats, and bowling," which I thought was very appropriate for the local Milwaukee-area TV viewing audience. When the host said to me, "So it says here that your hobbies are beer, brats and bowling," I said, "You betcha!" with my best Milwaukee accent. Our team didn't do very well, but we sure had fun.
I told Dean and Beth this story when we were up north. Dean asked about the host, but I couldn't remember him. I just googled Bowling for Dollars, and it said that the show was a franchise-type show, so all the shows were taped at a local bowling alley and then showed on the local station. So the host that was in Milwaukee wasn't the same one from Detroit that Dean remembered.
The funniest part of the night last night was watching the bowlers from the "serious league" come in as the school league was ending. Each bowler had at least three bowling balls, and some had as many as six in a rolling bag! Matt told me that last year this league asked to bowl in a different place than the school league because they claimed the school league "messed up the oil" on the lanes. I guess I don't watch enough PBA on TV, because this was the first time I had heard about the oil used on the lanes. Apparently the reason that the serious bowlers have so many bowling balls is because changes in humidity cause the oil to change too. Each ball responds differently depending on the need. It all seems complicated to me. To me, bowling shouldn't be that serious. Especially when drinking is a big part of it.
4 comments:
When extremely bored (which only happened before I had Elle), I was fond of watching pro bowling on tv. The audience was a hoot -- dead silent until the bowler released his/her ball, then wild screaming as the ball went down the alley. If it was anything less than a strike, the entire crowd would say a breathy collective, "Oh..." and immediately get silent again. So dramatic!
Now I need to watch some pro bowling. Kind of like the movie King Pin!
Too funny! I have the whole thing on tape someplace if you'd like a copy.
That seriously was one of the funniest nights.
Funny how with bowling, like pool, you get better with each beer until the ONE that sends you over the edge to drunkdom and then you aren't capable of hitting the side of a barn!!!!
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