A recent shooting at Montgomery’s Bama Lanes on the Atlanta Highway reminds me of two things.
First, I am reminded of Robert Putnam’s seminal analysis, “Bowling Alone,” wherein the author laments the deteriorating social fabric of America’s informal civic institutions.
Now almost a sad cliché, Putnam’s basic insight on the nation’s declining social capital still holds true today — more Americans are bowling more than ever before, but they are not bowling together in leagues.
Second, I am reminded of an outlier to Mr. Putnam’s well-studied finding — my grandfather, Ron. At 85 years young, he still bowls in a league at, of all places, Bama Lanes on the Atlanta Highway.
Even after a recent major knee injury, the old man rehabbed it faster than many men half his age could, only to bowl a 210 soon after. Hand to God, I swear his hat size didn’t grow as his knee healed.
For reasons too tragic or too banal to go into detail here, Ron is the only family I have left in Montgomery. After a childhood full of parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and a younger brother to boot, turns out we’re the only two left residing here in Alabama’s capital city.
Accordingly, I see him pretty much every Saturday; yard work then lunch. Of course, our Saturday appointment really isn’t about trimming the grass or eating a hamburger. It’s just an excuse to talk.
However, during the first week of 2022, I couldn’t wait for Saturday to talk.
That first week had been like many of the preceding weeks of the past year, just more so. It was a great success! Yet, a funny thing keeps happening. With each little victory in my media career, I come home with no one but the wreckage of myself to celebrate, with diversions that never quite seem to scratch my itch.
It’s my problem to solve, no doubt, but I suspect if I ever reach the summit of media success — and if I do so alone — I would feel as though I was still standing at sea level. As Richard Simmons recently wrote for 1819 News, “without great friendships, life is virtually bankrupt.”
So, on the first Friday of this new year, instead of sinking into the couch, I called up my grandfather and friend, Ron, “I know we’ll see each other tomorrow, but wanna grab a pizza tonight?”
I set this scene only because that night my grandfather (or “Pa” as I have called him since I was a boy) told me a story that drove the moral home. Unsurprisingly, the story was about bowling, or more accurately, a story about a story about bowling.
In his early 30’s, Pa was taking night classes to finally get a college degree. By that time, he was already an Air Force officer, husband, and father to a growing family, but he wanted that degree despite his otherwise busy life.
One of the night classes was a creative writing course. When assigned to write a few hundred words about any of his life’s passions, he chose to write about what it might feel like to reach a summit he had yet to climb — the mountaintop of bowling, a 300, a perfect game.
“Oh, what a glorious and joyous day it will be when I throw a 300!” That was the gist of his vision.
For years, he tried to climb that mountain. Ten years passed, then 20. Thirty years - Still no 300 game. He would get close, even a frame away, only to see his hopes fall when the pins wouldn’t.
Then at 77 years old, 40-plus years after he had written down how exhilarating it would feel to bowl a perfect game, it finally happened.
At first, he thought he had screwed it up, leaving the 8 pin in the 8th frame, but magically the pin fell. He redoubled his focus. The pins kept falling. The final frame came, and the final pins fell.
But, as he watched those pins fall, he didn’t feel as he had imagined 40 years before. He almost felt nothing. Sure, he had accomplished a long-time goal, but it was just another achievement to stand up and knock down with a disciplined shrug of another duty done.
Then he turned around.
That’s when he saw his wife of 60 years and his eldest son watching him along with his bowling league friends and hundreds of strangers caught up in the excitement of the moment.
Suddenly, that feeling of elation, glory, and joy surged over him just as had imagined all those years before.
I suppose the moral of the story is this: if you want to do something worth anything, bring friends and family with you on the journey. Why do anything at all if you don’t have people who love you there to witness it? To celebrate?
Of course, life isn’t always about victories and glory, no matter how big or small. The wreckage of bad things done and good things left undone can sometimes pull you down and sully those very same places of celebration and community, even with the blood of one’s brother.
The recent shooting at Bama Lanes occurred after midnight in the wee morning hours of Sunday, January 9, 2022. One man, 21-year-old Jeffrey Reed, was killed and six others were wounded.
The alleged killer, 23-year-old Tory Johnson, has now been released on bail twice, even after a sizable increase from his initial bail amount per the request of Montgomery County DA Daryl Bailey after a public outcry. The story has now reached national headlines.
As with any such shooting, people wonder why it happened and what can be done to stop the next one.
But does anyone honestly believe there won’t be a next one?
Will a recent revision by the Alabama Supreme Court of the maximum bail amount for murder do the trick? Does the legislature need to pass new reforms? Will more crime prevention programs actually prevent the next death? More cops on the streets? Better security at small bowling alleys? More prayers? More fathers in the home? Another mother’s tears? More calls for gun control, “common sense” or otherwise?
As usual, the answer isn’t exactly political or easy, though some will pretend for pride and power with genuine passion and pathos that it is.
We’ll see in the coming weeks what will be done if anything.
But beyond tragedies as old as Cain and Abel or personal victories like bowling a 300 game, I know this for certain — the fabric of this nation will only grow more bloody and tattered if too many Americans continue their unfortunate trend of bowling alone.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 9 a.m.-12 noon. His column appears in 1819 News every Tuesday. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback please email newsandviews931@gmail.com. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
