Chapter 3
My First Action
It's 1953, I'm 9 years old and live on top of a carpet store on 5th Ave in Bay Ridge Brooklyn NY. On this Saturday afternoon I was with my father like many times before in a bar on Ovington Ave. But this was not just any bar, there was a pool room on the second floor, a restaurant and most importantly a bowling alley on the main floor. Even though I had visited this bar since I was old enough to sit on my dads lap I never was allowed to enter the bowling alley. This afternoon my father asked me if I would like to try my hands at bowling.
That was the beginning of my first and greatest love affair. My father was very good friends with the owner and made arrangements for me to come in any every day after school and bowl a few games for free, my old man would take care of the pin boys at the end of the week. It took almost a full year before I broke the magical score of 100, and what a thrill that was.
It's now 5 years later and at the age of 14 I was already a seasoned league bowler, I was the sub on my fathers bowling team and when ever he would rather sit in the bar and have a drink, which would be quite often, I would take his place on the team. It was the last night of the bowling league and we were in second place bowling the first place team, we had to win all three games to capture the championship. I had been bowling real well, so my father let me bowl all three games, I came through and helped the team sweep all three, we were number one.
The best bowler on the other team, Jimmy Nolan, for that matter, the best bowler in that part of Brooklyn, was a southpaw that threw a real big hook, he was in his mid twenties, was the head pin boy at ovington Lanes, and had a hot Irish temper. My father was in his mid thirties, was a Swede, and had a real bad square head temper. One word lead to another, I was astounded when I heard my father say, I'll put my son up against you in any other house but this one, how much do you have the guts to bet.
First of all, I had never bowled for money before, outside of league bowling and some pot games (that's where a group of guys, put up say a buck each, and the highest game wins the pot) Jimmy was considered unbeatable at ovington, that's why my father said in any other house. To me it all sounded crazy; I was very good for my age, but not in Jimmies league. We go down to Lee-mark Lanes on 88 St, I was never there before, it was one of the brand new big modern bowling establishments.
My father and Jimmy agreed to a three game total wood match for $50. I was bowling with an Ace black and white ball; the type used on the black TV lanes every Saturday night from Neptune lanes in Brooklyn. As I stood at the line, ready to throw my first ball, my legs were shaking so badly I thought I was going to fall right on my face. Jimmy started with a split, some how the ball fell out of my hand for a strike. I went on to bowl the three best games of my life up to that point, 258, 277 and 238 for a whopping 773. Needless to say I won the match, My father gave me the fifty dollars plus fifty more from the bowling league championship, all in one dollar bills, The bank roll was so big I could hardly put it in my pocket. The next day, I walked in for the first time to the place where this story really begins, Ave M Bowl, I had a hundred in my pocket, my ball and bag in my hand, I was on top of the world.