Father/Son Bowling night
Last Saturday, Austin and Christina's school had their annual Father/Son Bowling night. It's a very fun fund raiser held at a local bowling alley. Austin and I look forward to attending every year. Back when I used to league bowl (some 20 years ago), I was about a 180 bowler. So, I'm not great, but I can give Austin pointers, which he seems to appreciate. These days, neither of us is a spectacular bowler, but we have a good time cheering each other on.
We are especially proud to hold our own against the folks we get teamed up with each year. Austin's best friend's father and mother actually work at the bowling alley. We always get teamed up with Mike and his dad, and as you can imagine, they eat, drink and sleep bowling. The competition is friendly, and Mike's dad does have complimentary access to the beer cooler in the bar when everyone else is using their drink tickets for sodas (I limit myself to one friendly beer with him. The night is meant for being with Austin, not drunken bowling.)
As much as Austin and I enjoyed our time together, much of the entertainment was provided by our teammates. This year, Mike's dad couldn't bowl, as he is recouperating from a heart attack. He was there to cheer on his two sons and his brother who was his stand-in. I was told that his brother was not as good a bowler as he, but when the brother bowled two 230 games, I started to suspect I was being suckered. As for his sons, Mike bowled his usual good games, and beat me once by 9 pins, and I beat him once by 2. Yes, I'm evenly matched in skill with a fourth grader who bowls approximately five times a week.
However, it was Mike's little brother, Anthony who stole the show. The kid is four (yes, 4) years old. He has a six-pound ball of his own. He bowls without bumpers, and throws sixes and sevens EVERY TIME. And I don't mean three or four from one corner of the set up, followed by three or four from the other corner. I mean, the kid throws sixes and sevens right down the middle, with a tiny bit of curve. Usually, he's so pumped up that, rather than wait for his ball to come back, he grabs the nearest ball and heaves it into the gutter. But still... imagine a four-year-old getting sixes and sevens every frame for ten frames! Amazing!
Austin threw a couple of terrific games, considering that we only go bowling maybe three times each year. His scores hovered right around 100 both games. He declined the use of bumpers for the first time, so I'm very proud of his performance. The funniest part was in the 10th frams of the final game, he told Mike's uncle (who was at 230 already) to "Try not to try." The guy threw the last ball away because he said he couldn't disappoint Austin.
One aspect of Saturday night bolwling that we really enjoyed is that they lower the lights, and there's a DJ. The DJ was superb. He knew that this was a fund-raiser for a Catholic school, and all of the music was perfectly appropriate for the crowd. Not one parent had any complaints about the selection of music. Afterwards, I offered him my compliments, and he showed me his gear (I used to DJ in high school and college, so I'm always interested to see the new gear). He's a 70-year-old man, but his gear was a Mac. He hooked it into the alley's speaker system, and ran everything from iTunes playlists. He has thousands of songs, and creates playlists for each event based on the intended audience. He prints out the playlist, with each song numbered. All the kids have to do to make a request is write down the number. He then sequences the songs based on tempo and volume, and fine-tunes the mix from experience. As we were finishing up, he was getting ready to greet a crowd of Orthodox Jewish children who were the next group. He had their playlist all ready to go.
Oh... I did win a prize. Every now and then, a colored pin will appear as the head pin on the lane. When that happens, you tell the DJ, and if you get a strike with the colored pin there, you win a free game pass. I won one (out of three tries). Hey! It's one more than I've ever won before!
In all, a great night. Most especially gratifying to have Austin tell me after that it's his favorite night of the school year.
We are especially proud to hold our own against the folks we get teamed up with each year. Austin's best friend's father and mother actually work at the bowling alley. We always get teamed up with Mike and his dad, and as you can imagine, they eat, drink and sleep bowling. The competition is friendly, and Mike's dad does have complimentary access to the beer cooler in the bar when everyone else is using their drink tickets for sodas (I limit myself to one friendly beer with him. The night is meant for being with Austin, not drunken bowling.)
As much as Austin and I enjoyed our time together, much of the entertainment was provided by our teammates. This year, Mike's dad couldn't bowl, as he is recouperating from a heart attack. He was there to cheer on his two sons and his brother who was his stand-in. I was told that his brother was not as good a bowler as he, but when the brother bowled two 230 games, I started to suspect I was being suckered. As for his sons, Mike bowled his usual good games, and beat me once by 9 pins, and I beat him once by 2. Yes, I'm evenly matched in skill with a fourth grader who bowls approximately five times a week.
However, it was Mike's little brother, Anthony who stole the show. The kid is four (yes, 4) years old. He has a six-pound ball of his own. He bowls without bumpers, and throws sixes and sevens EVERY TIME. And I don't mean three or four from one corner of the set up, followed by three or four from the other corner. I mean, the kid throws sixes and sevens right down the middle, with a tiny bit of curve. Usually, he's so pumped up that, rather than wait for his ball to come back, he grabs the nearest ball and heaves it into the gutter. But still... imagine a four-year-old getting sixes and sevens every frame for ten frames! Amazing!
Austin threw a couple of terrific games, considering that we only go bowling maybe three times each year. His scores hovered right around 100 both games. He declined the use of bumpers for the first time, so I'm very proud of his performance. The funniest part was in the 10th frams of the final game, he told Mike's uncle (who was at 230 already) to "Try not to try." The guy threw the last ball away because he said he couldn't disappoint Austin.
One aspect of Saturday night bolwling that we really enjoyed is that they lower the lights, and there's a DJ. The DJ was superb. He knew that this was a fund-raiser for a Catholic school, and all of the music was perfectly appropriate for the crowd. Not one parent had any complaints about the selection of music. Afterwards, I offered him my compliments, and he showed me his gear (I used to DJ in high school and college, so I'm always interested to see the new gear). He's a 70-year-old man, but his gear was a Mac. He hooked it into the alley's speaker system, and ran everything from iTunes playlists. He has thousands of songs, and creates playlists for each event based on the intended audience. He prints out the playlist, with each song numbered. All the kids have to do to make a request is write down the number. He then sequences the songs based on tempo and volume, and fine-tunes the mix from experience. As we were finishing up, he was getting ready to greet a crowd of Orthodox Jewish children who were the next group. He had their playlist all ready to go.
Oh... I did win a prize. Every now and then, a colored pin will appear as the head pin on the lane. When that happens, you tell the DJ, and if you get a strike with the colored pin there, you win a free game pass. I won one (out of three tries). Hey! It's one more than I've ever won before!
In all, a great night. Most especially gratifying to have Austin tell me after that it's his favorite night of the school year.