For those that don't know, Jason can bowl a pretty mean game. Me? I could bowl a 300 if you added five of my games together. Around here, it seems as if everyone is on a league. Caelyn's friend's mom asked me if I thought Caelyn might like to join her daughter on a bowling team for a short season. It only runs from Jan through April. Caelyn seemed pretty excited about it, so I decided to sign her up. And then I thought about Piper, who seems to be feeling left out of a lot of things lately, so I asked her if she would like to do. She was also very enthused. I was hoping to get Piper onto a team with other eight or nine year olds, give her someone her age to play with. When we got to the bowling alley Saturday morning, we had to fill out some forms to register, took fifteen minutes to get the right bowling shoes (apparently Piper has weirdly sized feet that don't fit in bowling shoes), and got sent down to a lane. Caelyn, Piper, Caelyn's friend Lexus and a friend from school Ty were all on one team.
Around the third frame of the first game (they play three every Saturday), something became very apparent -- Piper has never bowled without bumpers before. That poor girl hit the gutter for 20 straight balls. There were a couple of times I thought she might have the strength and roll to knock at least one down, but she got a big ol' goose egg for her total. Off course, it's hard to throw straight when you're crying. Plus, the ball is a quarter of her weight. I will give her points for bowling the whole first game. One of the alley employees was trying to give her pointers, but it didn't help much. Piper decided to sit out the last two games and instead used that time to beg me for money to use in the arcade. Finally gave in and gave her two quarters, one of which she spent on candy. Next time I'll remember to take snacks. So, the nice alley lady said there was no reason that Piper couldn't get "bumped" down to the bumper bowler league. The age limit is six, but at least she'll knock some pins down!
Caelyn did pretty good. Now, I should've qualified this by saying that really, this is only the second time these girls have bowled. Around here it seems as if these kids are born with a bowling ball on their tiny hands. (Probably felt like it to their moms, too!) Caelyn even got a couple of strikes, or at least they would have been if she hadn't sunk the first one into the gutter. For some reason they call that a spare. Whatever. :) I could tell she was losing steam in the third game, because it started to look like Piper bowling up there with all those zeroes. I think her last game she bowled a fifteen. The first game was a forty-eight and the second game was a fifty-six. I thought she did pretty darn good. Of course, add all three of her scores together and it still doesn't add up to what Ty bowled his last game.
Caelyn was having fun and that's all I can ask for. I think Piper will have more fun next week when her ball stays on the lane. The girls are already visiting the pro shop and picking out which balls they want.
1 comment:
sounds like you need to get bowler coach grandpa up there for a few lessons. He was the coach for our leagues growing up. Surely he can remember how to guide an 8 year old!
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