Bowling shoes - a fashion statement?

My daughter and I went bowling today for my niece's birthday party. It was mostly 4th grade girls, but the moms, a few 1st graders and a couple of kindergartners bowled, too. Since it was a kids party, they put up bumpers in the gutters for us. I have to say, thank goodness for the bumpers! And no, not just because the kids needed them...

Quite a few of the kids did really well. My daughter was even beating me for the first handful of frames, and that's with her just walking up to the line, putting the bowling ball on the ground and pushing it down the lane. There were some other interesting shots by the kids. My nephew lifted the ball up to his shoulder then chucked it forward - yes, it made a loud noise when it hit the floor. Some of the kids would go running with the ball up to the line, then stop, wait for a bit, then throw. It was all quite entertaining.

I have my own bowling ball, but I don't usually bring it with me when I go bowling. When I do, people expect me to know what I'm doing and that's just not the case. I took a bowling class in college and got to bowl twice a week for a semester. You'd think that that would improve my game, but no. My average back then was 111. I haven't bowled in at least a year, but today my score was 108. I don't think bowling is my calling.

Most of the kids scored higher than the adults, which was pretty embarrassing. My ever-so-unimpressive 108 was the high score for the day, but a 1st grader came pretty close with a 106 - I think she might be turning pro soon. I won't mention my sister's score (72) because it would just be too humiliating.

All in all, it was a really fun birthday party. And I can rest easy knowing that I won't be called relentlessly by the pro bowling tour asking me to join them.