Roller-Bowling

I didn't just create a new sport, although the vision of bowling while wearing roller skates does make me smile. I just like the sound of the two run together. Roller-bowling.

Back in September, a number of us got a little nostalgic, reminiscing about all the fun things we used to do as kids. Like roller skate. It seems like every few weekends we were at one of the local roller rinks, spinning round and round on rented skates to songs like "Celebration" and "We Are Family".

Then that same September night, suddenly, we were talking about bowling. One of those perfect high school hang-out activities.

Next thing we knew, it seemed perfectly logical to pair the two into a night's outing. It just took us until Saturday to act on it.

First stop was Coachlite Skate Center, one of the roll arenas I actually went to growing up (Fireside being the other). A few of us brought our own equipment -- Rollerblades, this time -- but others rented the traditional skates. About the same number of us actually remembered how to skate. The nostalgia wore off quickly, though. Perhaps it was the middle school kids and hip-hop/dance music, or maybe was just the limited entertainment in circling a rink endlessly. Only two people came away bruised. I wasn't one of them.

After about an hour, we moved down the street to our next stop, the local bowling alley. Unlike skating, most of us had bowled periodically throughout the past years. But our scores sure didn't reflect it. Although Dave came close to setting his all-time high score, I think the rest of us were a little less impressed with our efforts. Although, I probably shouldn't speak for everyone, since I was the big loser. They all managed to break 100 in one of their two games, but I missed on both, with my best effort being a 98. Ironically, I'm probably the only person in the group that actually had bowling lessons growning up. (It was a gym class unit in high school.)

But the important thing was, we all had a blast. Maybe we'll even do it again some day. Or perhaps not. There was keen interest in trying Whirlyball, tough.