I received the first of my pair of bowling trophies when I was just six or seven years old. Jim’s Cub Scout troop was participating in a charity bowl-a-thon. I think they got people to pledge money for every pin. That’s the first time I remember bowling. I’m old enough that they didn’t have ramps to aim or gutter-bumpers to protect my feelings. I bowled a ONE. My mom, or someone, awarded me a tiny little trophy, probably not much bigger than a plastic toy army man. In retrospect, I suspect that I was miserable and frustrated 19 of the 20 times I double-armed the ball down the lane, but I don’t really remember. That trophy, and the retelling of its story, ensured that I remember the day as a good one, however I might have felt when it happened. 

The second trophy was for a slightly better performance. I was in a Saturday morning youth bowling league at Sunset Lanes for a year or two in elementary school. I have fond memories of being driven to and from bowling by a friend’s older brother. Most of what I know about the bands Molly Hatchet and Lynyrd Skynyrd came from David Hughes’s eight-track player. Near the end of the season the league held a “high-low“ tournament. All the players were ranked by average and a top player and a bottom bowler were paired as teammates, and their scores were combined. Through a combination of coincidence and someone’s sense of humor, Jim and I were a team. I was barely a three digit bowler and on the day, I think I bowled 126. Jim’s average was over 150 (he had his own ball) but I don’t know how good. He also had an exceptional day. I know at one point in his “career” he pulled over a 200, but I don’t know if it was our tournament day or not. We combined victorious, and won a matching pair of winners’ trophies. It was the only non-academic first place trophy I received until a running medal in my forties. 

Despite the pride of place those trophies held on my bookshelf as a child, my first place team trophy has been lost to the intervening 40 years. I can not speak to the location of Jim’s.