Dear Jennifer,

Did you know that your Grandmother (my Mom) was quite the bowler in her day? Remember, a lot of moms were homemakers back then. She was in morning bowling leagues, but the one I remember most was the one at a bowling alley called Pritchard, Hunt, and O'Grady's. Now there's a name! It was on East Washington St. where what is now the interchange at I-465, which would be across from the Osco Plaza. Of course, the Plaza was not there then either. There was a building there that was a Rambler car dealer, which later became a "smorgasbord" type of restaurant, but I digress. (Remember, I see details like it was yesterday). Back to the bowling alley, which was a very dark place inside, and it was old, noisy, and smelled of cigars. It might have had 12 lanes, maybe less, but in those days, that was a lot of lanes under one roof. It did have automatic pin setters, but the ball came back to you on rails on top of the floor. Bowling alleys had a lot more action it seems, in those days. Today, most of all the mechanical action is hidden and it's a lot quieter. Anyway, there was Terry, a tall skinny kid behind the counter who had really bad acne. Terry's claim to fame was that at any time, he'd grab any of us kids, and toss us up in the air towards the ceiling. We were small, so we'd go pretty high, and hope in the mean time that on our way back down he was still there to catch us, and had not walked away to flip a burger or something. But, he always seem to catch us right before we thought we were going to be smashed on the floor. It scared the hell out of us, but it was a fun kind of scare, like a carnival ride. P, H, and O'G's also had a really spooky basement locker room. We'd dare each other to sneak down there where it was really dark, and watch the old retired guys who were down there drinking whisky out of glass pint bottles. We really thought that the boogie man was down in that basement. The bowling alley also had a mezzanine which was a perfect place to play and see all the action. It was here that I started serious play at being an airplane pilot. I usually took my small metal airplane and I'd take off on the tile floor at one end, climb the steps, level off, then descend the steps at the other end and land. Of course, sound effects were important, and I had the best sound effects of any kid on the East side. Good sound effects made all the difference between just play and a real Hollywood production! Typically, we'd hit Mom up for a dime so we could buy some Smith Brothers cherry cough drops; not because we were sick, but because they tasted so good. and we ate them like candy. If Mom rolled a good game, we might even get money to play the one pinball machine they had, (no side flippers) or maybe even bowl a game when the league was over. Normally, I liked to play with my airplane the most, and little did I know that someday, all that "play" take off and landing practice at P, H, and O'G's would come in handy. Oh, and I still have the metal plane.
Love, the Dadster