Bowling in Life Story

Every Tuesday afternoon I go to the hospital to volunteer at the the Long Term Care Center. I enjoy spending time with the residents, and I'd like to believe that they enjoy my accompany as well. My visit usually includes a greeting from room to room, chatting with the residents about what had been going on since last week I saw them. Then I ask people to come to the dining room; we either play games or have conversations about anything we want to talk about. One of our favorite games that we have played almost almost every single week is called "life story". It is very easy to play: each player roll the die and move the piece forward. Each space corresponds a different color of card, and the player should pick up the card and read the question and answer it. There are four colors, and the categories are etchings, memories, valuable and alternative.  Questions like "Describe one way that you and your father are alike" is usually found in Memories, and "What is the oldest photo you own" is a typical valuable question. The residents love this game. Not only because everyone wins the game, but also they all have a life full of life stories to share. They will go nonstop on something that sparks their memory and they describe every single detail of what happened.

One of the residents picked up a card from the Etching pile today. "What was your favorite athletic related thing to do in the past." She burst out without taking any seconds to think: "Bowling in a bowling league!"Then she started to talk about what a great time she had, and how she met her husband when she was bowling, and how their league won a tournament one year and the bowling alley let them play a day of free games. I couldn't believe now I know someone who played with a bowling league now. I asked her how long she played and she said many years that she couldn't remember how long. She then said her sons hated that she played, and she once told them to join a bowling league and just to have fun, but non of them were interested. I just think it was so fascinating that a game can related to class and what Putnam said in his article about the generation decline actually seems true. There were people who really enjoying bowling league and there were people who did not. Maybe I should have asked her something about social capital but I thought it would probably not be a good idea in the given context. Next time when I talk to her one on one I will probably ask.

Another thing that I forgot to mention to people. My family owns a bowling alley. It is part of my parents' business. I didn't go there often because I barely had time and also bowling is not the "cool" thing for teenagers, at least in China and maybe it is completely different here. Maybe I should take my friends advice to ask my dad to invest in laser bowling so more young people will come.