It Was A Trip Back In Time

Last night the wife and I went out for an impromptu date night that turned out to be like we were dating 42 years ago. We got a later start than I hoped for because I needed to go on shift at midnight, but it all worked out. We started with dinner at a Mexican restaurant we had not been to in years called Coyote Flaco. We used to just walk in and get a table. Not any more. Even with the shitty weather last night, the lot was full and we would have had to wait a half hour for a table. Since it was just the two of us we opted to sit at the bar since they would serve us food there. My wife had a house margarita and I had non-alcoholic lemonade. I thought the food was mediocre because it was prepared plates heated in a convection oven, not fresh made. How do I know? When the plates come out screaming hot and the server warns you not to touch them, that's how. Then there's the consistency of the food which is more like re-heated leftovers than a fresh meal. Hey, as long as it doesn't make me ill I'm OK with it. How many people do you know that willingly eats an MRE after all? So, at a bar with my honey? Retro item number one.

The main event of the evening was to go bowling. But not our normal Ten-Pin.... we were going to bowl Duck Pins at the nearby Lucky Strike Lanes. Duck Pin is totally different and way more difficult then Ten-Pin using smaller balls, shorter smaller pins, different pin action, and each frame allows the bowler up to 3 balls to knock down all the pins. Unlike Candle Pin, you cannot use the deadwood (pins knocked over but lying in the pin area), you must press a foot pedal between each ball to clear fallen pins. All ten on the first ball is a STRIKE and to score the frame you add the pin falls for the next two balls. Knock all ten down in two throws is a SPARE and just the next ball's pin count is added. If a bowler throws all three balls the total pin count of the three balls goes in the frame total for a maximum of 10. When a bowler finishes, they press the "RESET" button to clear the deadwood and bring down a fresh rack of pins for the next bowler.

The amazing thing about this place is the look and decor. We had a nice chat with the owner, who told us it was built in 1967, it has always been privately (not corporate) owned and has never been renovated. It looks exactly the way bowling alleys looked when me and The Missus were dating. The carpeting, wood paneling, retro arcade machines, snack bar, etc. I wish I had taken some photos of my own, these are stock photos from the interwebby and doesn't show how retro this place is. It is not by any means run down or worn out, it is incredibly cool! The machinery was all in perfect working order. We kept score with paper and pencil!

 

 

As I wrote above, my wife and I were always Ten-Pin bowlers; open bowling for fun, bowling together on mixed leagues and separately as subs on men's and women's leagues. The problem is burned in muscle memory of throwing 12 to 16 pound balls for many years. That made the difficult game even harder. Neither of us broke 90 after bowling 2 games. But we were told that is not unusual at all. No one has ever... in the entire history of Duck Pin bowling, bowled a perfect 300 game. The highest recorded score ever is a 279. A 300 would be the equivalent of someone shooting a 18 for an 18 hole round of golf, its that difficult. The pins reaction (or lack thereof) is strange to us. It takes not much variation in how you held the ball or rolled it to have it go where you didn't want. I found I did better with a short approach and rolled the ball more with my arm than my body. In Ten-Pin I use a long stride 3 step approach ending with a slide to the foul line and hook my 16 pound ball depending on the amount of oil on the lane. This all felt totally alien to me, even though it wasn't my first time bowling Duck Pin. The owner said we could probably bowl better NOT coming on Saturday night between 7 and 10 PM like we did with the kids, distracting loud music, and light show. I think we are going to do this more often in the future to try and get better at it.