Hawkflight Studios

The first frame

^{Candlepin: easier for kids, harder for adults.}As it happens, my parents met in a bowling alley. While I'll spare ^{no pun intended} you the details, it is interesting, at least to me, that it ended up my favorite sport to play. My parents did have an influence in that, but mostly only from having signed me up to a children's league when I was little.

You may not be aware, but in New England where I was born, there's a different kind of bowling. We call the standard kind "ten-pin", and our special kind "candlepin". The name comes from the tall narrow pins. In addition to the different pin shape, the balls are a lot smaller. Other differences include that you get to throw three balls per box (what ten-pin calls a frame), and that knocked down pins (called wood) are not cleared between shots. This is a much more difficult style of bowling and a score of 100 in a string (a game in ten-pin) is on par with a game of more than 200 in standard bowling.

As I noted, my parents were responsible for signing me up to bowl. They introduced me to a lot of sports, but only baseball comes close to the influence on my life that bowling has. I belonged to a Saturday morning children's league, but back then, I wasn't as excited to bowl so much as I was to get to play the arcade games while waiting to get picked up afterwards. Even then, my biggest adulthood hobbies were intertwined. I played on these leagues for several years before baseball began to occupy some Saturday mornings. My candlepin career ended however, when my parents moved us to New Mexico in the summer of 1992.

While in Albuquerque for high school, bowling wasn't a common activity. My parents are the kind of people who like to own their own equipment for everything though, so it wasn't long before we each had our own ten-pin balls. When playing candlepin, you only throw the ball straight, so as I started ten-pin, I was a straight bowler like most people. I did have very good accuracy though since I was used to hitting thinner pins with smaller balls. It wouldn't be until college where my relationship with the sport would really take off.

^{My Hellraiser Terror, one of several DV8 balls I own (my favorite brand)}My first attempt at college was in the 1995-96 school year. I was attending New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. As many young people do though, I struggled not having a support system around me. None of my friends or family were around and I often found myself stuck in my dorm room. The only bright spot in my week that'd get me out was the bowling league I had joined. The bowling alley seemed a little run down, but the people there helped get me the social interaction I needed at the time. That included a man who offered some tips on how to throw my first hook. It was there I bought my first ball on my own, a red Hammer, that I'd keep with me in my bowling bag for years to come.

After that year in Las Cruces, I moved back to the Boston area for a year to take a break from school so I could refresh and started living an adult life. I wouldn't say that my time there has particularly strong memories for bowling, but I did join a league and I remember that my shot was strongly influenced by having learned to hook in ten-pin. My path back to college would then take me to the Seattle area where I would attend community college so that I might earn a place in state college again. I was lucky enough to get a job in the local alley this time around which is where things really took off. With all the free and discounted games I got to play, I was able to significantly improve my average from the 150s to the 170s. I'd only end up spending about 9 months in the area though and before I knew it I was back in New Mexico for college, but this time at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Here I ended up joining another league, while also taking the bowling class for PE credit a couple of times. I continued to improve, eventually raising my average to the mid-180s. While I had several different jobs while in college, I did another stint at the bowling alley. It was a lot of fun and I made a few good friends there. When I graduated, the job I had lined up was back in New England. This time around though, I didn't join any leagues. I did bowl a few times in the seven years there, but with my candlepin throw being shot from my years of ten-pin bowling, and other circumstances, this period was the longest purposeful drought in my life.

^{Scores from a no-tap night when 9 counts as a strike on the first ball}In 2011 though, circumstances would cause me to leave New England again and re-enter the world where regular bowling exists. It wasn't long before I rejoined a league and to my surprise, despite not having bowled any "big balls" in years, my average shot up. I was immediately in the 190s. I spent the next six years improving, eventually topping out at an average of 215 in February of 2016. I have not managed to bowl the perfect 300 game, but I have gotten close with a personal best of 287. The last year though, I was battling some pain in my elbow and my season ending average slid by a few pins. In 2017 I had a job change which made my after-work commute to the alley unmanageable, and I had to drop the league. Then Covid hit which sidelined me for a couple more years. The good thing is that the time off has given my elbow a chance to heal, so I might be ready to get back on the horse soon.