I cannot remember when I was first taken to a "bowling alley". I know it was in the 1950's, so I was younger than 10... I'll never forget the place, it was on Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in a building called the Rodman Center. It was small, maybe six lanes, and still had manual pin-setting, where a guy would crouch behind a wall a foot, or two, behind the machine, clear away the downed pins, put them back in the Machine, and return the ball. Guys would do it for five cents per line (ten frames), per bowler. It is worth noting that in the mid-1950's, you could buy a tract-house for under $10,000, a car for under $1,000, and gas was between 10 and 20 cents per gallon. Mom and Dad would bowl once a week in a league.
The Rodman Center was a pretty cool place, though. It had a movie theater (that my dad worked at part-time), a gym, swimming pool, snack bar, barber shop, library, and a bunch of offices that never seemed to be open. The bowling alley was on the second floor, and was actually above the swimming pool. I always wondered if that had any effect on the wooden lanes...
When we moved to Vacaville, and actually got into our house, it was a quarter-mile (through the orchards behind us) from our house to Vaca Bowl. I started to hang out at the Bowl, and started getting to know a whole lot of people. One was a kid whose Dad managed the Bowl, and I got hired to be a Porter/Pin Chaser for $1.65 an hour. I'd work 20 hours a week, make $33 bucks a week (before taxes), somewhere around $45 every two weeks after. I soon found an easier way to make at least $25 per week (more with tips) tax-free cash money, and quit.
In the Fall of 1966, I got into the AJBC (American Junior Bowling Congress), became part of a three-man team, and competed. I was no novice, we'd gone bowling as a family many times, but it was the first time that it ever counted for anything... To be honest, I wasn't very good. I couldn't throw the ball the same way twice, and I didn't know [Schmidt] about the science of the game. I did like the competition and the game itself, so I started keeping score for league play, and watching people bowl from 6:30 to 11 pm. Sundays through Thursdays (that's how I made the $25 a week). I began to really watch the better bowlers, and started to notice similarities and differences, and increased my vocabulary by hundreds of Anglo-Saxon expletives. When I'd remember to try new things when I practiced, I started to develop a pretty good bowling form, and my average went from 100 - 110 to 150+ in a couple of years. I was pretty happy, my dad averaged 150, so we were competitive, and would often challenge each other. That was 1966 through '70.
Despite any rumors, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers do NOT have bowling alleys aboard, period. Therefore, I didn't bowl much from 1971 to 1974 (my tour of duty aboard USS INDEPENDENCE (CVA-62), I was either at sea, or drunk most of the time, so some time went by.
In 1975, I joined a team called "The Thugs" on a league for the folks at Fleet Combat Directions Systems Training Center, Pacific, or FCDSTCP (later shortened to FCTCP, the joke being that we lost Direction). We were in the league for a couple of years, and I joined a group of Electronic Warfare weenies on a team named "HEWS Corp" (short for "Heavy Electronic Warfare Specialist Corporation). After I joined, it became "HEWS +1," and I raised my average to the mid-160's, which was pretty good for a once-a-week bowler.
In 1979, I was transferred to New Orleans, LA, and we set up housing in Slidell, across the Causeway. I worked Fridays from 4 pm. to midnight, Saturdays from Noon to Midnight, and Sunday from Noon until the Naval Personnel Center, in Washington, DC, shut down for maintenance (usually sometime about 10 pm.). I was responsible for the weekend updates, ensuring that the proper set of programs ran in a set order, and dealing with anything that prevented the program from running effectively. Sometimes that meant calling a programmer at home, and getting the OK to run certain patches to these huge data dumps. I would kick off a weekend by scheduling a certain program to run on the DC IBM-360 computer system, which would, as a part of the program, call up other programs, or series of programs. This linked series would run for most of a weekend, and once set in motion, the Scheduler had nothing to do but check the operating status of the programs, noting when each completed with a Status Code of "0000". I was off, Monday thru Thursday totally, and until 4 pm on Fridays.
No one gets rich as an Enlisted man, and all too often (particularly in the late-'70's/early-'80's) there would be too much month at the end of the money. Many of us took part-time jobs, and I was not yet 30, so I looked for a bowling alley, thinking my knowledge of pin-setting machines might come in handy.
There were two bowling alleys in town, actually, Pontchartrain Lanes was a 24-lane establishment built into a former car dealership. The bar was literally in the Showroom, and was, in fact, called "The Showroom Lounge". The lanes were put over the old service-bay, with the pin-setters accessible either by climbing through the masking units, or going around to a door in the back. The back-end, the mechanic's office, wasn't insulated, and the only cooling unit was a "swamp cooler" that didn't cool. New Orleans is sort of on the Gulf Coast. In the summer, it gets really hot, and a favorite pastime is to see which will hit 100 first, the temperature or the humidity. Make no mistake, I think swamp coolers are great, we had one in a house in Vacaville, and darned-near froze to death one summer when it was 90 - 108 degrees outside, but less than 20% humidity. In the Gulf Coast area, a swamp cooler is just plain stupid.
When I walked in, the owner and two of his nephews had a handful of parts on the counter, and five pin-setters that didn't work. When I had the chance, I asked the owner if he was hiring, to which he replied, "I've got five lanes down, and a league coming at six. If you can get those lanes up, I'll hire you." I wish I could tell you I got them all, but I did get 4 out of the 5 up and running, and got the job as a mechanic. I worked during the day, Monday through Friday, and made some pretty good money on the side, in addition to my exorbitant military salary.
After awhile, the owner hired a real Head mechanic, a guy named Dave Forewood. Dave was a nice guy, a very good mechanic, and an excellent bowler. After work one night, I decided to see if I could substitute, or pace bowl for someone who was absent. It turned out, Dave had a team in the Men's League, and needed someone to bowl. That night, I rolled a 175 and a 182, but missed the first game, so I had a 357 series for two games, (an average of 178). Dave and the other guys on the team asked me if I wanted to fill the empty spot on their roster, and I agreed. The next week, I rolled my first-ever 600 series, a 608, all three games over 200. The following week I rolled my second 600 series, a 646, a little over 210 per game. I'd never bowled three games over 200, and I was on a streak of six-in-a-row. It didn't last, I ended the league with a 185 average, and started to do some practice during my lunch. Dave would come up front, and give me some tips. He said my mechanics were good, I just needed to find a "mark" (a spot on the lane) that I could hit consistently, and would take the ball to the headpin. He had me lined up with my left foot on the center dot on the approach, and swinging the ball out to the 10th board in from the right gutter (it's the second "arrow" from the right gutter). First ball was an 8-count, second, third, and fourth were 9-counts, a 5-pin, and two 7-pins. Before the fifth ball, Dave moved me a fraction to the right, not even half of a board, and hit the same mark. Fifth ball, strike, six, seven, eight, nine, all strikes.
That summer, during a league, I averaged 228, and shot my first 700 series, a 715, or an average of 238 for 3 games. It seemed like I would alternate, a big 600 series one week, a 700 the next. I got good enough to be invited to the opening of Don Carter Lanes in New Orleans, and take part in a Pro-Am. I was paired with a guy from Memphis, TN by the name of Steve Martin. It was an accident (that's what the tournament director said), but we hit it off immediately, and came in 3rd. I don't remember the name of the Pro on the lanes next to us, but he whined and bitched the whole time, and said that "Amateurs had no place bowling with Professionals."
By the end of the tournament, I was so sick of his BS, I called him out. "You're too f-ing good to play alongside regular people?" To which he answered, "I can beat you anytime, any place."
I flipped out. "You mean to tell me that you can come into MY house and beat ME?"
"Anytime, any place."
"OK, big guy, the time is 11 tonight, and the place is Pontchartrain Lanes. Bring money, lots of money. Cash only."
Long story short, I took him for 5 straight games, at $20 a game, so he decided to try a "double or nothing on the hundred bucks..." I took him for $200, and then $400, he decided to back down to just $100 per game. All told, I took $2,000 from him, and totally humiliated him.
1981 comes, and I get transferred to a Pre-Commissioning crew for USS MCKEE (AS-41), and didn't bowl again until '83, when I started a league in San Diego, and brought a team into the Naval Training Center, San Diego Varsity League. In '84, I was transferred back to FCTCP, rejoined that league, and was always fighting for the High Average award for the League. In '87, we moved to Monterey, CA, and I never had time to bowl, working 12-hour shifts, and working part-time at the Ft. Ord Golf Course.
After I retired from the Navy in 1991, I worked in bowling alleys full-time to help finance my full-time college studies, and support my family. Every once in a while, I'd bowl, but I didn't join a league again until 2002, when I joined a school district league here in Vacaville, at the bowling alley I helped build, and did OK. Of course, this was after a stroke in 2002, so bowling was more like physical therapy.
In 2004, I bowled in my last league. Another teacher's league, where I really started to get back to bowling 200's regularly. On the last night of the league, they had us bowling "Moonlight No-Tap," in the dark, where knocking down 9 pins counts as a strike. I had a 250-something, and a 279, going into the last game. I rolled a Perfect Game, 300, without using the No-Tap. A total of 12 strikes, regulation strikes. Two days later, the bowling alley closed, and I had to have a note to get my equipment out of a locker. Needless to say, I never got my 300 ring, and only got an 800 Series money clip because they had one at the desk. Neither accomplishment shows anywhere in the ABC records.
That's been it for me, bowling-wise. Back problems have prohibited me from playing, and I've sold everything but my bowling shoes. Now that my back problems are better, maybe I'll try it again. Not just now, though...
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