From The High School
Archives-The Day The Boys' Bowling Team Balked At Co-Ed Bowling -Go Figure
These Holy Goofs
The attentive reader
already knows part of this story-the so-called distaff side, the side about how
from what now seems like time immemorial the boys’ and girls’ bowling teams at
North Adamsville High School never shall meet. Here is a quick recap for those who
are rightly clueless that in the year 2019 this should still be an issue, the issue
of co-ed bowling teams, you know mixed, both sexes in the same bowling alleys
at the same time a situation which has not happened since before World War II
like this whole school had been in some monstrous time warp:
“Maybe in some corners of
the world there are odd-ball traditions that exist for no earthy purpose except
somebody got a bee in their bonnet or had hit the bong pipe too heavily and
never got over it. Maybe ingested too much coke or went over edge in some mystical
ashram of the mind. That is the case of the long-standing tradition carried out
to this day, to 2019 if you can believe that what with the “Pill, sexual
revolution, #MeToo and a thousand other movements which would, or should have
led to other more rational conclusions that the North Adamsville high school
girls’ bowling team will never become co-ed, will never mingle with members of
the boys’ team, at least on the bowling alley floor.
Rumor had it back in the
1960s when it would have made some sense, never confirmed although the story
has the ring of truth to it, that before the war, World War II, before the
world went up in smoke and fog the bowling teams were mixed, boys and girls
mingling just like real people in real relationships. That school, social,
maybe religious and parents policy all such agents would seemingly have had
their hands deep state inside this one was established, in perpetuity, because
one night some smartass male bowler, the list of possible villains included
such well-known historic names as Tiger Callahan, Bomber Kiley, Gary Devine and
Jimmy Larkin brought hard liquor into the place, distributed it and all
hell broke loose, including long suppressed evidence of sexual activity.
The latter a well-known
activity among the young since I would guess there have been young was not that
hard to figure for later generations since certain young women, I will use
first names only, Cindy, Jane, Irene, and Ellen had reputations for sneaking in
the back room at Billy Larkin’s (Jimmy’s father) Bowling Lanes and “playing the
flute, ” you figure it out if you don’t know what that means long before the
night in question.
What set the town on fire,
what got cops, priests, ministers, rabbis if there were any, parents and school
administrators is that some of those girls had to go see “Aunt Betty” out in
Iowa or Nebraska somewhere within a few months of that escapade. The deep dark
secret that every guy and gal in the 1960s knew was afoot so the reason for the
deep cold files seems baffling. Nevertheless Henry Hanks, some old fogy
headmaster whose photograph still graces the front foyer of the high school main
entrance as you enter the hallowed hall declared by executive order that
henceforth and forever separate teams at separate bowling alleys. Nobody since
has made a squawk. Weird, right ?”
I don’t know
if anybody earlier ever tried to have the policy changed given all kinds of movements
for women’s equality since that time, certainly since the 1960s. I do know that
nobody in my generation back in the 1960s tried, I didn’t even know the school
had bowling teams of any kind, co-ed or not until I got my yearbook and saw the
photographs. Recently though I have found out that this year, this school year
okay, the girls’ team petitioned to have co-ed teams. And the administration and
I don’t know who else was
consulted gave
their agreement, busting the logjam, contingent on the boys’ team’s response.
The boys
balked, said nada, nunca, nada, no. Why? These pristine fellows wanted to keep
their male cave intact, wanted to continue to bowl at Billy Larkin’s (long since
under new management Billy and classmate Jimmy having passed away years ago)
and not at Lucky Lanes across town. Here is the real deal though some of the
boys had heard that some of the girls drank and maybe did some dope. Maybe
would throw a party instead of worrying about a split or something. The boys,
some boys, worried that old worry that some girl bowlers might have to go see “Aunt
Emma” in Iowa or Wyoming after a few months of such activity. Weird, really
weird, right?
