Adventure 444: The Story of George, 21

February 11, 2018

Real time found George and Vina sitting at their usual table waiting for lunch. They had been to Mass as usual, and when I asked George how church was, he replied, "About an hour." As I walked in, George wrinkled his brow, smiled a bit wryly as if asking me, "What are you doing here." I said, "I'm here to check up on you." I'm quite sure he's feeling a little bit like we've been spending too much time on him. But he also appreciates it. The bottom line today is that he looked good, so I said, "See ya'". His fall didn't seem to have bothered him - his color, spirits, and energy seem good. Judgment on the reliability of his cognition remains in question, but it would appear that he's living as large as any 87 year old could hope for.

George was a very good bowler. He bowled for many years on different leagues and also  traveled a little bit to compete. For much of the middle of his life, bowling served as an outlet for everything from a social platform to a competitive space to a bit of physical exercise. I can remember watching George bowl. He had a stylish and rhythmic approach to the lane. His ball traveled very close to the right gutter, but halfway down the lane would arc smartly in the direction of the pocket. Often, the ball would strike the pocket in such a way that the pins, all ten of them, would explode inside the pin box. It was common for George to bowl two hundred. He even managed for a number of years to belong to the six-hundred series club. In league bowling, three games are played. The totals are added together, and the team with the highest total wins. A player who consistently added 600 or more pins to the total was seen as pretty valuable to the team. I don't think George ever bowled a perfect game, but I do believe he rolled a few in the high 280s. I know that he enjoyed bowling very much.