south hills bowl and the american dream

"If you can't handle bowling, how are you going to handle life?"
-Dave Stern

In 11th grade English we were introduced to a new concept on the first day of class. Our teacher, Ms. Hannah, asked the class if any of us knew what the American Dream was. Of course, at that time, we were 16 somethings that didn't know shit about how our great grandparents got here and really could care less, truthfully. After a series of incorrect guesses, Ms. Hannah answered the question for us. The American Dream was your right to pursue your dreams in any way you see fit. The thing that was great about the American Dream was that it was the first time in the history of mankind that people were truly allowed to have freedom. At no other time or place were people free to come and not only be awarded land but have the right to do whatever the hell they wanted with that land. That's what made and still makes America the greatest country in the world: the simple concept of complete freedom that was so revolutionary.

Earlier this week, a tragedy that you all know about occurred. It is not my job here to spit out random facts at you about the background of each person murdered at virginia tech. Instead, I'm going to point how this and the American Dream are related. First, the killer was an immigrant himself, who came here to study English of all things. If George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have seen how great this revolutionary concept that they embodied was, they would be thrilled with the country that they help to found. The murderer was part of approximately 25 million immigrants that we have in our country today. As many people have noted, having such a black hole type of a country can be dangerous because anybody can come into our country. The thing that makes us so different from other countries is that there is no true "American" look or thought process. What makes this dangerous is that millions of people from many different parts of the spectrum come to this country. Throughout our 240 or so years of existence, we have tried many things to try to prevent certain types of people from entering(literacy tests, mathematics tests, reading tests). However, in the end, the fact remains that American will always be an open society because the danger is a factor in American society, the rewards that are reaped from this society are much greater.

This brings me to my next point. In the 1950's, people were first beginning to categorize the American Dream as millions of WW2 soldiers began to settle into new houses. In a fast growing, yet small town south of Pittsburgh, a bowling alley opened. I can remember reading the article that they always had posted about how South Hills Bowl was the "best bowling center" back in that day because it had automatic pinsetters and a snack bar. My own run in with South Hills did not begin until 2001 when I began bowling in a high school league there. I knew absolutely nobody there, although I quickly made my first and eventual best friend from the bowling team, mike bradburn. Throughout my four years of bowling there in the league to the thousands of hours of practice I put in there, I got to know the people and the place inside and out. I got my first real coaching lesson there(when Dave Stern told me if I worked at it, I could get as good as the current captain of the team). It's where we had our first really good match with justin walter and company. It's the place that spawned so many of my high school friends(mike roth, jesse sopko, alan davis, brian ricobelli, bethanne fritz, maura hilbert, lauren kramer, and the list could go on forever). It was a place that we would go when bradburn and I were seniors(and the four other starters were juniors) would go after matches and food to go hassle our coaches in their adult league. Above all this, there was a bond that formed between all of us, even between the most bitter of enemies. When we went to tournaments and wore that ragged South Hills Bowl shirt you better believe we wore it with pride. We knew we were from a rough place on a hill in a little town called South Baldwin. We were aware that the place had never truly been renovated since its inception in 1952. And, most of all, we knew that it was the only place(other than Dormont Lanes) on this side of the Mississippi that didn't have automatic scoring. Despite all this, for fifty plus years people kept coming back to this place. Eventually, people just got tired of the lanes breaking all the time and having to keep score themselves. In the end, South Hills Bowl created its own downfall because of its intense stubborness and unwillingness to change with the times. Nonetheless, here is a list of 20 things I will miss about South Hills Bowl(in no order):
1. The leaking roof
2. Ryan Obringer
3. Bill Glus' voice over the loudspeaker every Saturday
4. Denny's hatred of life
5. The competitive matches with Justin Walter's team
6. Me calling Mike Niro a daego every week
7. Bradburn's victory dances
8. Soft pretzels and the strike shot every week
9. Mike Roth and the "Kill Yourself" patch
10. The distinct black color your hands would be after bowling
11. Sitting on the pool tables with Bradburn, Jesse, Alan, Bryan, and Lauren on Wednesdays and Fridays
12. Bradburn breaking his finger bowling
13. The 50/50 and Star of the Week, both of which ended this year
14. Throwing Drew Kreigline on top of the vending machine.
15. The constant breaking of the lanes
16. The milkman
17. Maura's tendency to never want to be there
18. Chic Miller telling us if we made 75% more of the spares we missed that we'd win every game
19. The shitty sign on the hill
20. The building itself, with that uniquely ugly blue and white paint.

There you go, there is the list, and this concludes my post.

Until next time,
mh