I Am Not Ashamed!

I Am Not Ashamed!

I have something to confess.  It is not something I generally admit, as it seems these days people with the same belief as me are put down.  We are considered by many to be lower class, uneducated, un-enlightened people.  Well I don’t care anymore, I am going to proudly announce my preference and if this upset you, then stop following this blog.

I am a bowler. 

I have been a bowler since I was eight years old and damn it, I am tired of hiding it, I will not live my life in a closet.

I like to bowl!

I am not a great bowler, but I am ok.  I bowl in a league and am probably the third best bowler on a team of five.

Scoff if you must, but bowling is fun, it is challenging, and damn it, bowlers are salt of the earth people. 

Bowlers do not mince words, if you miss an easy shot, they don’t molly-coddle you with, “Ah too bad, I think the wind affected your shot,” or “You must have slipped,” or “There is a bump in the lane” … bowlers will just tell you, “You sucked on that one!”

Bowlers don’t talk politics, they talk making the ten-pin spare.  They don’t talk about the economy, they talk about bowling.  Bowlers do not drink expensive wine, they drink two buck chuck, beer or whisky, and not the single malt whisky crap, but good old whisky.  Oh, they may drink the good stuff, but they don't make a deal of it.

There is no bowler type, it is the most inclusive of all sports.  Our league has old people, young people and really old people.  There are white people, black people, Jews, Muslims and Christians of all denominations.  They all believe in God, at least they all call his name from time to time on a missed shot or a bad break.

My team has an eighty-plus year-old Italian whose accent sometimes has me answering “Yeah” to comments I cannot understand, but dang he is good!  He is also a good golfer; I think I wanna be like him when I grow up.

We all have one thing in common.  We bowl.  We participate in an often looked down upon sport and we are proud of it. 

Is bowling a sport where you can smoke and or drink in-between frames?  Yeah…so what?

Can really fat people bowl and bowl well?  Yeah…so what. 

There is a little person in our league, she scores as well as any average sized person.  There are elderly bowlers who approach the foul-line like their shoe laces are tied together, but they can bowl pretty damn well.

To even things up, there is a handicap system which gives extra pins to the score of lesser bowlers.  Our league is mixed, men and women compete together.

I am proud of being a bowler. 

We are the least racist, misogynist, ageist athletes in the world.  We accept all people of all abilities.  We high five our opponents when they do well, we never fight or argue, but we are still as competitive as Hell.

Few people my age can shoot a basket, no one over forty-five plays football, skiing can be dangerous, golf is expensive, but damn it. Anyone can bowl!

I bowl, and am proud of it!