So yesterday afternoon I go to get some practice in. I'm on lane 9-10, and a couple who comes in not longer after me are on lane 12 (lane 11 is out of service)...a large group comes in, with pre-teens, teenagers, some parents, and even grandparents (although the parents and grandparents seemed to be watching rather than bowling)and they were assigned to lanes 13-18...at first, I thought that mass chaos would ensue, but they were pretty quiet and self contained for such a large group...

So after bowling for a bit, I decide to grab a soda and take a little break. The couple on lane 12 had gotten some food, and they were sitting down to eat as I was coming back to my lanes. Each lane pair has two tables behind it; as a was sitting down at one of the tables behind my pair, one of the parents from the large group came over to ask the couple if they could make use of the second table behind the couple's lane pair, since the couple wasn't using it. The reponse was a surpringly angry no...the woman asking seemed pretty startled by the response, and what ensued was a drawn out debate where the couple got increasingly loud and condescending, while the parent (and others who joined her) were pretty calm and quiet throughout, but seem thoroughly perplexed at why this was even a problem.

Someone at the front desk soon took notice of the encounter and came over to see what the deal was. The couple by this point is over the top p1ssed off at the idea that someone would want to use that second table, while the parents in the group are telling the manager, look we don't want any trouble, we were just trying to understand why we couldn't use this table that they weren't using, since there's so many of us. So the manager explained that the table in question was assigned to the couple's lane, and if they didn't want to share it they didn't have to. So the parents shrugged their shoulders and let it be. One of the parents even tried to apologize to the couple, who then promptly demanded to be put on another lane. Finally as the couple was moving their stuff, one of the older ladies who was watching came over one final time as apologized. By this point the guy had calmed down somewhat, and he thanked the lady for her efforts, but the woman, still angry, just stormed off. Ironically enough, by the time this was all over with, the only lane left for the couple to be relocated to was a single lane next to another group, so they still only got use of one table while the other group had the other table.

So, my question is this? How would you have handled it if you were that couple? As for me, I rarely sit for very long when I'm practing or hanging out with the guys. Even if I were on a date, all I would care about is having one table and two chair available; if someone else wanted to grab a couple chairs or slide a table over a little, what's the harm? Maybe some of you guys have a different view...