My First Time Was Almost Memorable

My First Time Was Almost Memorable was Originally Posted on November 8, 2009 by lavarock

I was watching a Mayberry episode and Howard was in the process of bowling a perfect game. The odds are 1 in 11,500 of an adult bowling a perfect game.

My common score in 10 pin was 130 to 150 and every once in a while I bowled 190. However, there is a story I should tell.

Decades ago I was in the Washington DC area helping at the Great TV Auction, a televised fund raiser for Public Television. I bought a bowling coupon that allowed 20 of my closest friends to come and have snacks and bowl a few games. It was also my birthday as I remember.

As people gathered to play, some had bowled before and some had not. One person had knocked down 5 pins (but it took him 3 or 4 frames to do that). I gave him a couple of pointers on how to stand and what to do and he instantly began bowling 7’s and higher per frame.

I was tearing up the alley. By the 8th frame I was bowling a perfect game! I was exstatic but knew it would not last. I was never that consistent with my games. I kept looking to see if there was a piece of fishing line hidden at the pins that someone was pulling to knock them all down for me. There was none. It was me and my skill.

In the 10th, I started raising my arm back with the ball and was almost to the point where the ball was at its apogee, when the guy behind me, the one I had helped inprove his game, hollered very loudly “LOOK OUT!”. My thought was I was about to hit someone in the face with the ball. I twisted quickly and almost dislocated my shoulder because of the heavy ball and the height I had it. I felt pain in the shoulder and throbbing.

As I turned, the guy was laughing. It seems he thought it was funny to have me stop in mid motion. He didn’t realize the position I was in and what it meant for me to have a perfect game, on my birthday, in front of friends, all of those witnesses…

My final score was something like 276, certainly not the 300 I had hoped for. I didn’t keep the scoresheet and I can’t even remember who specifically interrupted my game. It turns out the game was just not as memorable as it could have been.