Strike!

Tuesday night, Sweet Pea invited me to escort her to her Girl Scouts' bowling night. All I could thing about was, I hope the alley had insurance. With ten wild scouts pounding their lanes, it could add up to some damage. Thanks to Lady Di's good directions, we found the bowling alley, which happened to be in the middle of a dark corn field with no lighted signs. We deserved a scout badge just for finding the place.

First, we had to get bowling shoes. Sweet Pea ran to the counter and politely asked, "Size 11 please."

I asked, "How do you know your bowling shoe size?"

I guess she had already bowled at an after school program earlier that afternoon. Which meant, either her bowling arm would be tired out from bowling earlier or it would be warmed up just enough to win some serious money. I then found out that wagering is not allowed at Girl Scout activities. I was also disappointed to know that only the scouts were going to be bowling and not the parents. I felt that, against Kindergartners, I could have had my best chance of actually bowling better than someone. Although, when I saw all ten of them bowling at the same time, I was glad that my toes were safely in the sitting area. Even though the 'bumpers' were in the gutters, a couple girls found a way to get their ball stuck there. And only a few bowling balls ended up rolling back toward the parents instead of the pins.

There were many bowling styles on display this night. Rolling the ball between the legs was popular. Also, the two handed swing your body three times was used. One scout thought it would be good to hold the ball above her head and let it drop from there to the lane. Let's say that that wasn't the only time the adults winced.

Sweet Pea came ready to bowl. She liked to run to the line and push her ball down the lane. It worked pretty well for her. It was probably fortunate for me that adults weren't bowling this night. Sweet Pea scored a 99 in her first game! I was thinking that I have got find a father-daughter league to enter. Then I remembered a few of my many sub-one hundred pin games. A mother-daughter league would be much better. Lady Di is the bowler in the family and she, apparently, has passed on her ten pin talents to Little Peatie.

After her 99 game she cooled down a little and bowled a 74 for the next game. Still pretty good. Regardless of the scores, all of the girls had a fun time. There was lots of talking, giggling, squealing, dancing and laughing. I think I was the only one following the scores. Many girls didn't even bother to watch their ball snail down the lane before skipping back to laugh with their friends. Which is fine, because the point of the night was to have fun. We were at a nice alley, I got to meet some of Sweet Pea's friends, and we had some fun father-daughter time together. I hope, someday, when Sweet Pea is grown with her own life, she will think back to times like these. Maybe she will even ask me someday, "Dad, do remember when we went bowling?"