When we were still living in Chicago, Mary and I took up bowling, because why not? We even had our own balls and shoes. Neither of us were especially good at it, but we had fun.
The big bowling alley in our area (not actually our neighborhood) was Miami Bowl. Why it was called that, I have no idea. Maybe the owners liked Miami, about which there is plenty to like. Bowling is not necessarily one of those things. Jai Alai is a different story, but we won’t get into that.
Our favorite, though, was an alley that was literally right across the street from Midway Airport. Planes would be taking off and landing while we were bowling. Kind of disconcerting when you’re running up to the line to roll, but after a while you don’t even notice. What I remember was that the ball return ran along the side of the lane, so you could see your ball being returned.
I was sent to Bogotá, Colombia, to work with a client and ended up having to stay the weekend. I woke up Saturday morning and had no idea what to do with myself, so I took myself to the mall that was across the street. I did some shopping, buying a sweater for Mary (the salesgirl had an interesting technique for selling it: she took off her own sweater, under which she was wearing nothing but her bra, and put on the one I was thinking of buying; naturally, I couldn’t say no), then I discovered that there was a bowling alley in the mall. I rolled my personal best game there, one where I rolled a spare, then a strike, and repeated that pattern, ending up with a score of 200. I think I got more than a little help from the pinsetter, i.e. I don’t think it set down ten pins each time. But I’ll take it…
After we moved South, we went bowling a couple more times, but we lost interest after that. I think we donated our bowling equipment to one of the organizations that’s always contacting us to donate stuff, and that was that. We don’t miss it…
Linda is the host for Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Now let’s visit Superior Bowl with Michelob Ultra.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
What a way to sell a sweater! I like bowling but can’t do the 10 pin because the balls are too heavy..I did some damage to my shoulder once. When we go, which is rare, we do the 5 pin and I use 2 hands. Yup, I look funny but I don’t care. Love twinkle toes Flintstone.
LikeLike
How do you line the pins up for 5-pin? is it 1-3-1 or 1-2-2? Just curious…
LikeLike
I’m glad you have some good memories of bowling. I should have mentioned in my post that my aunt Margaret was a semi pro bowler. I did not inherit any bowling skills at all. Seems like Fred Flintstone’s twinkletoes move used to make me slightly intrigued and slightly uncomfortable.
LikeLike
Somehow the thought of Fred Flintstone and a bowling ball approaching the line on the tips of his toes is a little disconcerting, but given that it’s a cartoon, it’s kind of what you expect. Sports in cartoons are weird in general…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reminds me of The Big Lebowski.
LikeLike
I’ll have to take your word for that, since I’ve never seen it…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I recommend it. Steve Buscemi had one of the lead parts and the characters like to bowl and some of scenes are in a bowling alley. I think that is why they have him in the commercial.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hubby and I were on a league together for several years. He had been a bowler for years, me not so much. But I managed to get a trophy for most improved bowler and I even bowled while pregnant with our first. I had to change my style a bit to accommodate for the growing stomach but it worked. We don’t bowl anymore either.
LikeLike
I think everyone goes through a bowling phase, though I couldn’t say for the current generation. It’s longer for some than others.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great post, John! Maybe your game was also inspired by the salesgirl. Now that’s an enterprising young woman!
LikeLike
That was inspired by the two young ladies at the next lane who needed help scoring (hey, I’m married, I’m not dead…) I bet the salesgirl sells a lot of sweaters that way…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bowling for me was always like shooting pool…I either lucked out and looked like a pro or… most of the time a bad bowler.
LikeLike
That’s about like me… My average was about 100, meaning I’d follow a game where I bowled 150 with a game where I bowled 50…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep that is exactly what I do…I hired a guy…he is 25 and his parents own a chain of bowling alleys. This kid went to college on a bowling scholarship…. he said he wants to take me bowling one day. He sees Mookie Betts of the Dodgers there a lot.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I practically grew up in the kind of bowling alley you describe, John, with the ball returns on the surface between lanes. Interesting sales technique. I imagine she sells a lot of sweaters.
LikeLike
No doubt!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too dabbled with bowling. It was fun. The kind of fun that you thought you weren’t going to have but surprised you not unlike a Thanksgiving family gathering where you have an extremely interesting conversation with an in-law you had misjudged as ‘thought impaired’. Hope Mary enjoyed that sweater as much as you!
LikeLike
She did. Of course it’s disappeared now.
LikeLike
😊🤔
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun story. I love the Flinstones footage! Columbia must have been interesting…
LikeLike
It was a place where you could be in a cosmopolitan city like Bogotá and still see the indigenous people who looked like they came out of the hills leading burros behind them. In a way, it was kind of cool. A lot of times they were selling cigarettes, and I learned that you could negotiate the price, though I paid their price, because I knew they needed the money more than I did…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! It works a lot like that down here in parts of the Southern tip of Africa…
LikeLiked by 1 person
how fun! love the sales technique
LikeLike
She was probably very successful….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I haven’t been bowling in years , my mother and father in-law used to play Bowls which is the English equivalent of the the French games Boules .
That was some technique that sales girl had I bet she did well for bonuses! 💜💜
LikeLike
The thing was, she did it as though there was nothing to it. I think it was a cultural thing…
LikeLike
Yes it probably was 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
We had a bowling alley locally when my kids were young, so naturally all the birthday parties for one entire year gravitated to that place. How it went out of business, I’ll never know. I wasn’t very good either, but my excuse is I was trying to help my four-year-old win…
LikeLike