Duckpin Bowling

There may be a national association, but I’d never heard of this sport before moving to Baltimore. Basically, the balls are smaller, they don’t have any holes in them (bigger than a Bocce ball, much smaller than a bowling ball), the pins are smaller and you get three tries per turn. We had two lanes to ourselves, which meant one of us was scoring (double-digit addition in my head, o my!) and two were bowling at any given time.

When I say Jrex was good I mean that he got strikes* or spares** most turns. Granted, on his next turn (when the extra score matters) he almost always got a gutter ball. But then he’d still end the turn with a spare. When I commented how good he was he responded, “I’m really not. If I scored over 200, then I might say I’m good, but I don’t.” I squawked at him, “Honey, sometimes you’re SO Asian!! 200 would be phenomenal in my book. ‘Good’ is if you get more than one lucky shot and actually manage to aim the ball fairly consistently.” I managed one strike and two spares, so I was quite happy with myself.

*Strike: every pin knocked over with the first ball you roll. You get an X in the score box. The next two balls you throw (in duckpin) are added to a base of 10 points and put into the X score box. The balls you knocked over on that turn are then added into the score box. It’s like doubling your shot.
**Spare: With your second ball you knock over any pins remaining from your first roll. You get a / in the score box and your next roll is added to the base of 10.

My favorite part was how each of us tried to influence the ball's trajectory by leaning our bodies.

Here’s me (in a photo that makes my butt look as big as Texas):


My Dad:

And Jrex (his lean has much more style and subtlety than either Dad’s or mine. Mostly it’s in the hands):


Just three lanes down from us there was a bowling league. They had tiny little leather bags for their duckpin balls. I find it hard to imagine taking myself seriously as I walk out the door and call, "Honey, I'm off to duckpin league!!" But, perhaps, with how good Jrex is, it'll be him calling to me as he waltzes out to his league games!