My Music Journal 2025: January 29, 2025

 

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Time: 7:50 AM
Song: Sha La La
Artist: Winnetka Bowling League
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way to work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7dVF7taTea0xSv0HCrPGU9?si=7cb58283a69c4778

I was part of a bowling team for two or three years after college with a few guys I used to work with at National Manufacturing. It started out that I was just supposed to be a fill-in, maybe bowl once a month, but it quickly transformed into me being there every week.

I was bad.

I mean, really bad. I think my average maybe was 125.

What was worse is that like the second week I came out,  I bowled a 215 game out of complete nowhere. I had never broke 200 before that and I haven’t since. How it happened when I was using one of the lane’s bowling balls and basically just throwing it with no plan or training, I have no idea. I even got a patch for it.

When I immediately went back to the low 100s everyone kind of thought I was sandbagging. Over that time, I was gifted a ball by one of my other former co-workers – his name “Gary” is still on it. We took the ball to the pro shop and they drilled the holes to fit my fingers and put grips inside of them. This makes it easier to spin the ball (it’d didn’t help me that much).

One year for Christmas, the team surprised me with bowling shoes. I was still renting a pair each week. It makes sense to buy shoes if you go each week, but I always sort of assumed the team would tag me out when they landed a better bowler.

We played a card game each night where you got a card with each fill (strike or spare for those not down with bowling terminology). The best hand at the end of the game won the pot. I usually didn’t end up with a lot of cards, so I don’t think I took that pot too often.

We alternated times each Thursday with a Ladies League, meaning one week we would start at 6 p.m. and the next week we started at 9 p.m. I was working at the high school at the time, meaning there were a lot of bleary-eyed mornings during that stretch.

We drank beers, I think some nights I could polish off three beers a game. Now I would probably curl up and go to sleep after three beers.

We’d talk about sports. Probably about our jobs. Maybe our girlfriends. We cheered each other on.

There wasn’t any social media to check.

There were sports on the TVs above the lane, but I don’t remember ever paying attention to them.

I don’t remember talking about politics once. None of us were looking to save the world.

We just hoped to end up with more pins than the other team by the end of the night.

It’s sort of hard to remember world like that now.

Sha La La.

When I was hired on full time at the paper, I knew that I would be working nights and getting the same night off each week was improbable. So, I resigned from the team, and I think they might have disbanded shortly after.