Words and Light

SILVER SPRING, Md. —

Jeff took me bowling the other day. It was unlike any bowling I’ve done before: It was duckpin bowling.

Jeff, gentleman that he is, let me beat him on our third game.

There were, of course, balls and pins and alleys.

But we had to keep our own scores. (Something I’d always let the computers and TV monitors do for me.)

Duckpin bowling allows you three attempts to bowl, as opposed to two tries in the bowling I'm used to.

Instead of being sent back under the alleys, the balls were sent up via a tube aboveground and between the gutters. We also had to manually reset the pins and clear the alleys of fallen pins by pushing buttons on the ball bank — rather than having the machinery do it for us.

The balls and pins are smaller in duckpin bowling.

It was bowling at its basics. No fancy machines or flashing lights or neon decals.

What you see when you walk in.

And it was great. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat.