We all have a bowling story. Sometimes they're good stories, and sometimes they are bad. Sometimes they tell of amazing feats, other times they tell of the time you took a 6 - 9 out of a full rack in front of some of the best bowlers in the city. Like it or not, as bowlers, the game has shaped all of us in one way or another.
In 1995 I was a year out of high school. I was just finishing up junior bowling and thought I was REALLY GOOD! Looking back now, I can see what a fool I was. But I enjoyed bowling as most of us do, it is what I was good at. I played baseball... let me rephrase that, I was on my High School baseball team. Did not play much but I was there and I have a High School letter to prove it! Bowling was part of my DNA. I grew up watching both my parents bowl at Rockwood Lanes. Dad with his brothers and friends in the men's league and Mom with my aunts in the women's league. (I have another story to tell about my mom, but that's for another time.)
Back to 1995 and the Oregon Open which was held at Hollywood bowl. A nationally televised PBA event in good old Portland, Oregon. I was bowling in the Pro-Am in hopes of bowling with some of the hero's of the lanes. If I remember correctly, the professionals moved lanes each game so every pair got to pair up with 3 different pro's. I don't remember who two of the three pro's that I bowled with are, I do remember Jeff Hickenbottom because he was on my pair when they took the picture. I don't remember what I paid for the picture and frame but I know nearly 30 years later, it's a priceless memory.
That's me, third from the left behind Hickenbottom. By the way, that is some awesome hair and stylish K-Mart polo I am sporting!
Just remembering bowling in a Pro-Am nearly 30 years ago and still having a picture of that day is a good bowling story, but not an amazing one. What's amazing is the picture itself. Because in that picture, is the woman I would fall in love with five years later.
Sandi Spencer, (far right of picture if you could not tell) and I did not really know each other in 1995. She was younger than me and our bowling paths did not really cross as she bowled juniors at Rockwood and I bowled at 20th Century mostly. She was also a much better bowler than I was since she was part of the famous "R KIDS". But the bowling world brought us together in the following years due to my working for AMF and other mutual friends.
It wasn't however until I left working in the industry and we had drifted apart as friends that we found each other once again. But we did and have been married for more than 20 years.
That picture hangs on our bedroom wall as a reminder of how important bowling is to us. Without this game, or sport, that we love, we would not know the love Sandi and I have for each other.
So what's one of your bowling stories? I challenge you to think about it and write about it. You can submit it below or you can email yoru story and pictures to info@vanportbowlingnews.com. We'll share stories each week in the newsletter and at vanportbowling.com.
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