It’s Wednesday afternoon at the Circle Bowl and a chatty group, The Elite Seniors, were paying their $8, lacing up their bowling shoes and warily eyeing their opponent.

My mom is a member of The Elite Seniors and drives half way across congested Baton Rouge to go bowling. I was tagging along, wondering what’s the draw?

Turns out – a lot.

When my mom and dad were first married, they were on a bowling league, complete with their own bowling balls, shoes and shiny shirts.

Mom said back in the 1950s, all their friends were on bowling leagues. The activity wasn’t expensive, the kids ran around without worrying about breaking anything and couples visited while getting a bit of exercise.

When I was a teenager, midnight bowling was popular because we’d get to stay up all night and check out the boys while pretending to care about the game.

I’d forgotten all about bowling until one rainy evening. We were visiting my parents and my then 5-year-old son said he’d gone to a birthday party at the bowling alley.

“Back in the day, your mom was one of the top bowlers in the league,” my dad said. “She even won trophies.”

At barely 5-feet tall, I was skeptical and said I wanted to see her in action.

So we dragged their bowling balls and shoes out from the top of the closet and headed to the bowling alley.

Turns out, they were pretty good.

My dad’s form was smooth and graceful, and my mom took her time before sending the ball on its way, their bowling styles reflecting their personalities.

 

A New Pastime

A couple of years ago, my mom heard about a seniors league and decided to check it out. Pretty soon, she was winning trophies, talking about strategy and her new friends.

While visiting her this summer, I wanted to see if the commute was safe for my 80-year-old mom to make by herself.

When she walked in the door, there was a cheery chorus of “Dee’s here!” Smiles and hugs went all around as the Elite Seniors talked about politics, the weather and the LSU Tigers.

Everybody had their own equipment. Instead of dinged-up black bowling balls, an assortment of balls in blues and pinks sat side by side on the rack.

Instead of the ugly brown and tan shoes I remembered, the Elite Seniors wore bowling shoes in all colors and styles.

Then it was game time, and I wondered if some of these frail looking seniors could pick up a heavy bowling ball and throw it down the lane.

They were amazing.

 Bowler after bowler racked up ear shattering strikes and spares, their high scores reflected on the fully automatic scoring screen. They picked off splits and shook their heads in disgust when throwing a curve or a hook.

Everybody cheered when 92-year-old Homer bowled the first of his three strikes and great-grandmother Teensy easily racked up five spares.  

The Elite Seniors are good bowlers, but more importantly, they care about each other. If someone’s missing, they call to see if they’re okay. They know the names of each others’ grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They’re competitive, feisty and they have fun.

Despite the long drive to get to the alley, I realized my mom needs to keep bowling with the Elite Seniors. The friendship and camaraderie league members provide for each other keeps them young and engaged in life.

But more importantly, Mom’s got room on the mantle for another trophy.

Game on.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.

 

If you’re on the Internet, you’ve probably seen those “pass-this-on-or-be-sorry” urban legends such as being careful when using hand sanitizer or your hands could catch on fire.

True life is much better than anything people could make up. That’s part of the reason I have a problem with the current summer blockbuster movies. This year’s crop specializes in blowing things up and unnecessary violence.

What they’re missing is the backbone for any successful film – a decent script.

It’s been a while since we’ve watched a movie with an extraordinary story line. One of the best is the 1962 movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” We see Atticus Finch demonstrate true character by defending a man of color when prejudice was rampant.

No explosives. No inter-galactic space villains. Just a man who lives true to his beliefs.

The Harry Potter movies are often remembered for their spectacular special effects, but the true star is an outstanding script based on a creative story.

The same goes for the “Lord of the Rings” movies. The CGI effects are astounding, but it’s the story of Frodo’s dedication that makes a long-lasting impression.

Great stories are all around us. There are people who go above and beyond themselves every day as they battle cancer, accept foster children into their homes and persevere against the hard balls life throws at them.

But writers miss so much when all they’re worried about is how much stuff they can blow up or destroy.

There’s the true story of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker, who saved over 3,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto from being exterminated during World War II. She risked her life by smuggling babies and children out of the concentration camps.

She was eventually found out, arrested, beaten and jailed by the Nazis. Four Kansas high school students found out about Sendler and wrote a touching play, “Life in a Jar.”

But no movie.

Courage by Example

There another person whose story of courage is well worth examining – 13-year-old Talia Joy Castellano.

Talia was diagnosed with two types of rare cancer and lost all her hair during brutal chemo treatments. She decided she didn’t want to wear a wig and experimented with colorful eye makeup. She had so much fun and felt so good about herself, she created a series of professional make-up tutorials on YouTube.

The over 1 million YouTube viewers she’s attracted forget that she’s bald or that she’s battling cancer. Instead they see a happy young girl with a message of hope.

Ellen DeGeneres saw the same bright light and had Talia on her show where she was named an honorary Cover Girl star.

Talia wanted to become a make-up artist in Hollywood, but her dreams were cut short. The cancers came back, and, this week, her mother announced that Talia had finally lost the fight.

Producers will continue to make expensive, over-the-top movies. But finding a genuine story, an earnest one that will inspire people for years, is as easy as looking at the people around us.

Maybe it’s the story of a family who lost their toddler son to cancer but give out Christmas gifts to cancer patients year after year.

Perhaps it’s the story of a social worker who put her life on the line to save babies and children from extermination.

Or maybe it’s watching a make-up video by a smiling 13-year-old girl who knew true beauty and courage comes from within.

This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.

For the last few weeks, red, white and blue have been everywhere. American flags wave from flower beds, street lamps and store fronts.
Fireworks stands pop up along the road, hyping Roman candles and bottle rockets, and grocery stores hype hot dogs, watermelon and apple pie on sale.  

We understand we’re supposed to recognize the significance of the holiday, but it’s easy to lose sight of the historical significance of many of our holidays.
Memorial Day honors those who lost their lives in battle. Veterans Day honors veterans of the armed forces. July Fourth is the day America proclaimed her independence. Instead these days are often associated with gigantic store sales.

So what do we know about the importance of July 4, 1776?
We know the colonists were tired of paying taxes to a king across the ocean.
We know Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin worked on the document that declared our intentions to become independent from Great Britain.
We know George Washington became the first president of the new country.
We forget, though, exactly what was at stake when the colonists publicly stated their desire for freedom, and we forget how much courage it took to make that stand.

The colonists – who were really no more than poor farmers and struggling merchants – literally risked their lives to stand up to British troops who were the best and most prepared in the world.

They fought a formidable army, won and then hammered out a constitution that would be fair to all. In one of their boldest acts, they signed their names to an act of defiance, a document we call the Declaration of Independence.

How many of us when asked to sign a petition or put a sign in our yard hesitate because we don’t want anyone to know if we’re a Democrat or a Republican? How many of us have held our tongues when we know something is wrong but we do nothing?

 

Democracy in Action

I was in Austin with journalism students the week before a controversial anti-abortion bill came up before the Texas legislature. These teens witnessed dozens of protestors chanting their support or condemnation of the bill.

They were witnessing history, seeing people stand up for what they believed and willing to take the consequences of having their faces photographed and filmed.
The two sides are bitterly divided, but nobody is denying them the right to say what they think. In this country, we encourage freedom of thought and speech, and we’ve had our system tested, most harshly by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.  

After the horror of 9/11, our country united. We worked together to rebuild what terrorists thought they could destroy.
We were misty-eyed when we heard “The Star Spangled Banner.” Soldiers in restaurants had their meals paid for by strangers. People remembered why and what the stars and stripes stood for.

As we watch the fireworks tonight, instead of marveling at the pretty colors, let’s remember the celebration is symbolic of the explosion of ideas that took place in people’s hearts and minds 237 years ago.
They hungered for freedom and were willing to use whatever means they had to achieve that goal. Too many people have put their lives on the line to fight for and preserve that freedom.
And remember the Fourth of July is much more than a sale or a barbecue and much more than lighting up the sky.  

The Fourth of July is the day we took a stand for what we believed.

America. Long may she live.  

 This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.