For Cheri’s birthday in July of last year, I performed less than stellar for my part and felt a need to make it up to her. So we had a Wah-half birthday party because she wah’d about her lack of a birthday and I felt very guilty. For the experience we put together some “I Remember When” stories. Here is one of my first memories of Cheri back in 1981 when we were just dating.
The picture is with Cheri in Salzburg.
I Remember When…
December 28, 2007
Cheri’s Wah-Birthday party
I remember when I was first introduced to Cheri’s athletic prowess. It was in St. George, UT for a Homecoming Dance in the Fall of 1981. Alan Goff took Florence and we double dated in Alan’s little economy car. After arriving in St. George on Friday evening, we dropped our stuff off and drove to Las Vegas where we introduced the girls to the infamous One-Armed Bandits. We spent a little time playing the nickel slots and had a sufficient return to cover the entire cost of gas for the round trip.
After experiencing the bandits, we ventured to the bowling venue where I learned Cheri did not have a lot of experience with America’s favorite smokers past time. We were in the famous Show Boat Casino, home of the World Championship for bowling, 50 lanes of smoker’s paradise. We rented our shoes and were assigned lane #1. There were about 10 other lines in use that night with a girl’s foursome in lane 3.
Florence, with experiential knowledge with spherical objects that are hit, thrown, caught, kicked, or thrown, had a fine game of it. Alan and I, of course, did the same. Cheri, on the other hand, found it most challenging to avoid the gutters. It was like her ball had magnets molded into the core of the plastic with metal lining all the gutters. They had yet to invite bumper bowling in 1981, to my knowledge, so we kept a real score, as projected above by the computerized scorekeeper.
After 9 frames, Cheri had barely broken double digits. She was unfazed by the competition and didn’t seem to mind her lack of success. Since her score was readily visible to anybody in the neighborhood, our girl’s night out foursome on lane 3 were no doubt aware of her unfavorable circumstances. With all seriousness we cheered for her ball to find the pins with each roll, but our enthusiasm was waning as we entered the 10th frame. Our faith and hope were spent, however, our charity remained strong.
Her first ball in the 10th found its usual home slowly down the metallic lined gutter. Something happened, however, between her first and second throw. The magnets were turned off and she chucked her 2nd attempt with her usual vigor and energy. We observed the initial trajectory of the ball and became excited as it tracked down the middle of the lane. Our excitement grew as her ball passed the 50-yard line still in the middle of the lane. By now, our foursome had given over their undivided attention to the cute blonde standing in the first lane watching her ball slowly make its way toward those white things 60 feet away.
Soon the girls were inching toward our lane as the ball hit the head pin and created a domino effect as all 10 pins took a bow, a SPARE! It was a miracle; Alan, Florence and I yelled for joy and were completely outdone by the girls cheer squad on lane 3. Cheri turned a very light blush, looked very cute and we laughed.
It’s only gotten better since that time. Not her bowling, just my love for her.
What a cool story! Now all we need is the snapshot of that first bowling night spare to go with your romantic story! If you didn’t catch that kodak moment, then maybe recreate it on another bowling date. you know me, I’m thinking scrapbooking.
Great idea. That could be a fun date night.