I had been contacted during the week that I was invited to the bachelor party, which took place today, for one of my high school running buddies. Although I learned later that part of the party had taken place at the mall before I joined them, I joined them at the lanes, as part of the party involved bowling. Not many of the others were good bowlers (though a couple of them had their moments), so it was pretty much a treat for them to watch me, and I tried to oblige them.
I had a first game in the 160s, hoping I could give them a 200, and after being notified that that part of the party was being cut short to 2 games, I buckled down (with some help from the fact that I was offered the chance to finish out for one of the other members of the party who was on my lane), and had only one open in the second game, giving a chance (with an earlier double and a strike in the 9th) to get a strike and count in the 10th for 200, which I had with my best shot of the day and a stone 7 on the first fill ball, missing the spare for a 204.
While I was still with the party, we visited a couple of other places in Brockton that were important in the groom’s life before repairing to the groom’s house for a brief acoustic jam session featuring a couple of members of the party, followed by a buffet dinner at one of the local Italian restaurants. The groom’s brothers met us at the restaurant, and my good game was brought up. I asked the organizer of the party what had been the inspiration to have part of the party at the lanes, and he told me the whole theme was stuff in Brockton, and that it was serendipity that one of the people in the party (me) was a good bowler. There would be more stuff for the party after dinner, but stuff I did not want to hang around for, and I took a cab home.
As this weekend’s NEBA tournament at Westgate Lanes was getting started near the time we had to leave, I was able to say hello to Alex Aguiar while I was there, and got him caught up a bit on my own bowling activity. I plan on going back to the lanes tomorrow to catch some more of the NEBA action.
The Tenth Board 