Soon after we started our first game, five little old ladies settled on lanes one and two. What a noisy bunch they were, twittering like parakeets.
Their initial bowling excitement soon wore off when ball after ball ended up in the gutter. Sometimes the ball headed for the gutter almost straight after delivery, other times it rolled down the lane, heading for the pins, but then made a gradual left or right turn avoiding its aim.
If drove the ladies crazy. As the ball rolled down the lane, they cheered “Yes, yes, YES!” only to change to a sighed disappointment “Oh no.”
Eventually they had enough of it and one of them came over to us. They had been eyeing us for some time, watching us make strike after strike and spare after spare.
“How do you do that?” the parakeets’ representative asked Dieter.
Hm, how was he going to explain (in 5 minutes or less) the concept of bowling. He tried to help as best as he could, after which the lady joined the rest of the parakeets again to share her new-found knowledge.
Over time, some of the ladies did improve and when one of them made a strike, she along with the rest of them nearly had an attack.
While we played, they eyed us some more and tried to copy what we were doing. When that didn’t work, the parakeets’ representative came back.
“How do you make your ball curve like that?”
That was a “little” harder to explain.
While we chatted with the ladies, an equally keen bowler, playing on lanes five and six, approached. He was not interested in our expertise and advice though, he thought the secret lay in our balls.
While our backs were turned, he grabbed my brand new Track 910A and carried it to his lane. Fortunately, I have a wide perennial vision and saw what the little thief was up to.
When I went to get my ball back, the bowler (playing with a house ball) complained … “But I like that ball. It’s so nice and shiny and is so much better than mine.”
Yeah well, true as that might be, I liked my ball too and I wanted my equipment back.
This was not the first time this happened. A few months ago, someone walked off with my Karma.
When I went to get my ball back, the women said “But you weren’t playing with it, and I want it, because it’s pink and pretty.”
So does that mean I could have taken her boyfriend? Because he was the tall, dark and handsome type and she wasn’t giving him any attention.