If you look back on the board....probably a year or even longer someone had a post about bowling memories. I replied to that, but I figured this was a good chance to bring something as special as this back as a topic.

What is your most memorable moment in bowling? It could be your first 300 game, your first 600 set, you first 800 set even, OR you could go the route I am going to go---mine is a bowling moment spent with my father and some good friends.

It was probably my 2nd year bowling. My father had been bowling since the mid 70s. A buddy of mine had just finished his 1st year of bowling. We were all set to go and bowl in our local city tournament. The first time for me and my buddy. Since we were both really new to the game, and reactive had only come out a year or two prior our averages were low. Before that tournament we had used urethane, but all of us invested in a reactive ball about a month before the tournament.
My average at the time was 165 or so, my buddies 155-160. My dad and my buddy's dad both averaged about 175-180. So as you can see we had handicap on our side.

I cannot really remember our scores right off, but I do remember roughly. A friend named Willie Brown bowled 712, My dad and Donnie's dad each bowled 650-660s, I had 640s and Donnie bowled right around 600. Our ending score was 3495.

Up to that point my dad had not won so much as a league championship, same with Donnie's dad. So we were thrilled that we were in the lead. ONE PROBLEM though!!!!! There were 2 squads remaining after ours. We were so excited and so nervous at the same time.....we kept calling and calling to find out if we had been knocked off.

It was not until the 11pm news that we found we had won. Being able to win a championship so early in Donnie and my bowling careers was special, but being able to share that with your fathers was totally AWESOME.

It is THE time in bowling I will never forget. Sharing something that special with my dad was priceless. He is still alive, and still bowling. He is the person that got me into bowling at the age of 16. Bowling was something for him and I to do together. Add to that winning a city tournament, something that could never be taken away from us. No matter how good or bad of bowlers we were at the time, we accomplished something that can only happen once a year.

WELL, there you have it, that is my bowling story.


Lets see what yours is!



-EX-
--------------------
Owner/Operator
C-G Pro Shop

My best memories would have to be winning the youth league I was in during my 2nd year of bowling and shooting the 800 back in October.  Also, it's fun to whoop the hell out of people when bowling against them for money and they talk a big game, but when there's something on the line, their scores don't show up.  Heh heh...I just felt like including that since I have plenty of experiences like that.

Don't laugh, but my best memory is my first (and so far only) 300 and my first 600 on the same night.  The planets were all nice and lined up because I was averaging 151 at the time (don't ask how I did it, I still don't know).  I remember throwing the 7th ball and I knew right then I was going to shoot 300.  Woman's intuition!

207-300-154/661.  At least the last game was still 3 pins over average

(Side note:  The next week I promptly shot three games in the 140s)
--------------------
White Dot
Making life miserable for 10 pins everywhere
http://faldo.atmos.uiuc.edu/FBL/mkting.html

I have 2 rather long-winded moments.

I was bowling in a summer sport league, bowl 2, switch pairs and opponents, bowl 2. I had been bowling terrible, and this night, the first two games were no exception. As I'm putting my gear on the rack, my opponent looks at me and says, "This will be an easy six points". I didn't care what it took, he was going down, and I drilled him by 60 pins in each game. When it was over, he was quite annoyed, and I looked at him and said, "You were right. It was easy".

Second story. I'm practicing on the end pair in the summer. It's hotter than hell, and all the doors are open (why I'm there with no A/C I have no idea). Including the ones to the machine area, and the one behind that to the outside. Now, I don't have a lot of hand or speed, but I throw at a 10 pin, and the ball jumps out of the gutter, rolls thru both doors and out into the parking lot. It took a few seconds to recover from the shock, and after a minute of changing my shoes, out I go into the parking lot. The ball had rolled under the mechanic's car, who naturally had just come back from lunch. By the time I got the ball out, I had a White Dot that had one flat side to it. Made a hell of a paperweight though.


--------------------
PIZZAGUY

Making the world safe for tweeners

A couple months ago, I would have answered this question with no hesitation, that the most memorable moment for me was my 1st 300 game (2001).  The anxiety, nervousness, palms sweating, knees wobbly, crowd gathering.  It an experience like no other.  Until....

The second week of April this year, bowling in a league with my Dad for the first time in almost 10years, I was able to put up two honor scores that I could tell he was just as proud of as I was.  He's been bowling for 30years and is a consistent 200avg bowler. But, he has never posted an honor score.  He's come close on numerous occasions.  He taught me how to bowl as a youth adn I probably wouldnt love the sport as much as I do if it werent for him.  That night, after posting scores of 278 and 264 in my first two games, I knew that my first 800 was a real possibility.  In the last game, I kept my composure and concentrated on getting the bowl out and hitting my mark and I continued stringing strikes.  By the 7th frame with all strikes, I knew that the 800 was in the bag.  My next goal was to finish it off for my Dad.  The 10th frame came and I hit the first two.  On the last ball, the hit was kind of light and it wasnt one of those shots where you automatically know its 10 in the pit, it took some pin action for that final pin to fall.  I threw my arms in the air and could hear my Dad yelling and screaming over all the other people gathered around.  He gave me a huge hug and he it almost looked like he teared up a little.  I could tell this was special for him and it was definitely special for me.  

By the way, 278+264+300=842  Not bad for my first 800  (highest set shot in that house)

Mine would have to be picking up the 3-6-7-10.

Not that the spare was hard, but when I picked it up
the foul light went off.

Now the three people on this site that have seen me bowl know that
there is NO way on Gods green earth that I can foul.  That is what made
it so funny, everyone was looking up saying "Did Eric foul...Nah no way he
could foul."  So they gave me the mark.

Back before a few injuries I had a VERY deep knee bend. couple that with
stopping 6 feet (YES FEET) behind the line, and if I sit the ball down sooner
sometimes I will hit the foul line.
--------------------
Eric T. Spivey, P.E.
 Visionary Test Staff Member
http://www.visionarybowling.com

I took a few minutes today to think about this topic again. I have a couple more memorable moments to add. Notice, they all include my father. He and have a special relationship, like none I have had or ever will.

December 2, 03 was a pretty cool night. My dad and I were on opposite ends of the house. I left his team because another team really needed a 5th bowler this season and our team had 7. Well, the second game of the night is what made it special. There was my dad on lanes 13-14, and me on lanes 3-4, my dad spared and went off of the sheet that game, 290. He said that he didn't have time to even be concerned with his game because he kept coming down to watch me bowl, I shot 299 that same game (damn 8 pin, got me several times this season). If it were possible I would give him my first frame, the joy he would have had to shoot 300 would be awesome.

Another memory comes from the same season that we won our local city tournament. My dad and Donnie's dad were on a different team than Donnie and I were. We had to bowl them in the championship. All week long they were harrassing us. How they were going to pound us, and this and that....blah blah blah. Well, we ended up beating them. It was not even close. The funny thing is afterwards I went up to my dad to say "nice bowlin' ya", **L** he would not even talk to me. Mr competitive.


--------------------
Owner/Operator
C-G Pro Shop