While being quarantined in my house because of the Corona Virus I had a lot of time to interview the next person who influenced me in bowling. That person would be my grandpa or Jerry Glenn. This proved to be a little more difficult because my grandma and grandpa live in Texas from just after Thanksgiving to about late March to mid-April. With everything going on they decided to stay in Texas to prevent the spread and limit their exposure to it. To make it possible to interview my grandpa I had to call him, and these are his answers.
Bowling is something that has been around for a long time, it did not start getting popular until the early 1930’s right after the probation. People were looking for new avenues of entertainment and thus bowling gained a lot of popularity. My grandpa was just getting into the sport as it was gaining its popularity. So, the person who got my grandpa into bowling was himself. He was self-taught and practiced a lot to get better and better until he is where he is now. He has a high game of 298 and a high series of 712. Bowling was something that was not forced upon him, but instead something to do when there was nothing else to. His favorite aspect of bowling is a couple things. He really likes the math aspect of bowling (like father like daughter). He also really likes the relationships you make from bowling. Like any sport you make friends with the people on your team. But unlike many sports you also make friends with other people on other teams. The environment in bowling is unlike anything else and once you experience it you are hooked. As my grandpa started getting older, he has not been able to bowl as much because of pain that his body has and the stress that bowling puts on your body. He does wish he could bowl more and in a perfect world he would. My grandpa’s favorite league to bowl would be a nine pin Thursday night league. This league is one of his favorites because he was able to bowl with his daughter (my mom) and his granddaughter (me). What is a nine-pin league? A nine-pin league is where if you hit nine pins on the first ball, it is considered a strike. It was a really fun league and a great way to get into bowling.
My grandpa loves bowling and has taken many aspects he has learned from bowling and was able to use it in his everyday life. I think everyone should experience bowling at least once in their life. Maybe I am biased, maybe not. Either way bowling was one way for my grandpa and I to form a tighter bond, and that is something I will treasure forever.
Bowling Through the Ages 