Roll With It 

For your sake, I hope you didn’t come here for an NBA Finals recap or my thoughts on the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA Championship, because, well … I have no thoughts on the matter.

What else am I to write about during this dead sporting season?

If you know me personally, you know I love to bowl. Yes, you read that right: BOWL. And although I constantly tell everyone I know with deep pockets, we still don’t have a bowling alley in Rockaway. But I digress.

This past Sunday, my family and I decided to have a good old-fashioned family fun day and go bowling. Our first mistake: we chose a bowling alley my husband hadn’t visited in at least 20 years. It happened to be the closest option to Rockaway, in a nice area, with a parking lot. Things were looking promising. Then we walked in and struggled to communicate with the woman at the front desk. We went back and forth for a good 10 minutes before she asked if we wanted shoes. My response: “Wanted?” She then informed us that we could have worn our own sneakers. Of course, we had no clue, so we were the only idiots in the place wearing flip-flops and, consequently, had to borrow the bowling shoes.

We finally got our lane, found some balls, and got ready to bowl!

The next hiccup: no bar. I know it’s possible to have family fun without a beer, but man, does it help! So the adults, bowling on a hot Sunday, had to do it sober.

We began bowling, moved on from our “withdrawal,” and started having fun.

It’s important to stress, once again, that my family LOVES to bowl. We do it every time we get together. We usually get scores between 100-150 and very much enjoy the friendly competition. That being said, my husband so lovingly pointed out (when he was losing) that my family does not know any of the rules of bowling. One would think, after the amount of time we spend going to the alley, we would have a pretty good understanding of the game and the rules. Nope, we are just there to have some fun, drink beers, and make fun of whoever is losing. “Do we get to roll again after that strike?” “Why is there a red circle around that number?” We’ll just look at the screen for the answers we need and ignore the rest.

To give my husband some credit, he opened my eyes about our glaring lack of bowling knowledge. So, because it’s summer and you may be forced to bowl with your kids, and because I have nothing else to write about, allow me to share with you a little bowling 101 to keep in your back pocket the next time you and the family or friends decide to hit the lanes … you’re welcome.

Frame: One turn in a game of bowling, there are 10 frames in a game.

10 bowling pins: One point for every pin knocked down.

Open Frame: When you do not knock down all 10 pins after two balls.

Strike: When you knock down all 10 pins on your first ball in a frame.

Spare: When you knock down all 10 pins with your two balls in a frame.

Strikes and spares give you bonus points on the next frame(s).

Dash (-): Indicates a gutter ball (0 points).

F (Foul): Means you crossed the foul line.

A circle around a number: Means you got a split.

Split: When the headpin is knocked down, but there’s a gap between the remaining pins.