A Fabulous Moment in History
My girls are always super amazed and amused at how many things WEREN’T invented when Steve and I were growing up. They can’t believe, for example, that we had no personal computers. We also had to hand crank the windows down in our cars, and for quite a while, we had cars with NO air-conditioning, so we had to stick our heads out the hand-cranked window to cool down. Those were primitive times! But I think the thing that amazes them the most, the thing that leaves them truly flabbergasted, is that we can remember a time BEFORE there was the HIGH-FIVE!! The truth of the matter, though, is that I was there for the historic moment when the High-Five was invented. I was actually part of that history. It was a truly stupendous and momentous event.
When I was in my early 20’s, I lived with a group of friends on the 4th floor of a decrepit apartment building not far from the college “happening” street in Raleigh, NC. We called ourselves the FOMAs….Future Old Maids of America. We said it proudly and it was much like the Wags today….well, Wags minus husbands and kids. We were always looking for something to do and would fairly frequently go to the bowling alley/restaurant/bar which was always a hubbub of activity. We were friends of sorts with the bartender, Mike, who liked us and joked around with us whenever we came in. One night…it was probably in February, that most notably boring and dreary month of the year, when Mike was pushing this new bowling league that was being formed. It was a coed league, any male-female configuration you wanted, and it played once a week. We were looking for something to do, so, OK, yeah, let’s sign up. There was only one of our group who was what you might call a real bowler. Susan actually focused while bowling and could usually roll about 150. Not bad. Ann and I weren’t awful, but we weren’t good either. I was happy to go over 120 and sad…though only minimally….if I fell under 100. And Brenda, well, Brenda was pathetic. She was my Asian-American friend who’s family owned the Chinese restaurant in town. I only mention her ethnicity because she was so funny and cute bowling so horribly each and every week.
The first week we started playing in this league, we realized we were in over our heads, bowling-wise. We were the only women who had signed up and everyone else knew what they were supposed to be doing…..and could actually do it. But, oh well, what the heck, it was just for fun anyway. Every week though, we did notice an interesting trend in our play. The matches consisted of 3 games. The first game we were all, except for Susan, quite awful. You could drink beer at this bowling alley which certainly livened and loosened things up, so that by the 2nd game, we could actually do unexpected things with our balls….like knock over multiple pins for strikes and spares. That second game was the Golden Slice of the match for us. However by the third game, we were no longer golden in the bowling department, but were certainly having fun anyway, what the heck. And every week, of course, we lost.
The other teams were mostly very nice young men. When they played us I’m sure they were quite happy to have an easy win and they were amused by our bowling in a joking sort of way. They were all friendly, but they were all into bowling, which pretty much sums it up about those guys. But it was a very pleasant couple of hours spent having fun and goofing around. There was one team, though, that was REALLY into this league. They were the top team in the league…undefeated…but super nerdy and very arrogant. They were NOT friendly. They took their bowling oh, so seriously! Eventually, it was our turn to play these bowling whizzes. I’d like to say it was the last match of the season….that would make the story even better, but in all honesty, I don’t believe it was. But no matter, I have no memory of the rest of the season anyway. We did nothing special to prepare for this match….the bottom team in the league against the top team in the league. We were loose, maybe we were a little more focused for this one; we knew it would take a miracle. So I guess a miracle is what took place. Somehow, we played the very best first game we’d ever played. It was stunning! We won that first game. And then it was as if a spell had been cast on that first place team. Those arrogant, nerdy, undefeated, unfriendly, seriously way-into-bowling guys completely fell apart! They could do nothing right and were going further down the dark hole with every missed pin. We were so loving it! For our part, we decided not to have that second beer this time. And so we won the whole shebang….the whole match!!! It was a David and Goliath kind of thing. We were in total shock and for a bunch of women who weren’t really taking this bowling thing seriously, we were way more excited than can be imagined. And that’s when IT happened. It was a spontaneous thing. We were all sort of jumping around when Brenda pushed her hands up into the air to slap mine and then Ann and Susan joined in and we were all slapping each others hands up there over our heads in jubilation. It was a phenomenal, historic and fabulous moment. Because that moment, right there in that bowling alley on Hillsboro St., in Raleigh, NC, was the exact moment when the High Five, the very one used by all sports teams to this day, that moment was when the much revered and always present symbol of victory…the HIGH FIVE….. was invented.
My girls are always super amazed and amused at how many things WEREN’T invented when Steve and I were growing up. They can’t believe, for example, that we had no personal computers. We also had to hand crank the windows down in our cars, and for quite a while, we had cars with NO air-conditioning, so we had to stick our heads out the hand-cranked window to cool down. Those were primitive times! But I think the thing that amazes them the most, the thing that leaves them truly flabbergasted, is that we can remember a time BEFORE there was the HIGH-FIVE!! The truth of the matter, though, is that I was there for the historic moment when the High-Five was invented. I was actually part of that history. It was a truly stupendous and momentous event.
When I was in my early 20’s, I lived with a group of friends on the 4th floor of a decrepit apartment building not far from the college “happening” street in Raleigh, NC. We called ourselves the FOMAs….Future Old Maids of America. We said it proudly and it was much like the Wags today….well, Wags minus husbands and kids. We were always looking for something to do and would fairly frequently go to the bowling alley/restaurant/bar which was always a hubbub of activity. We were friends of sorts with the bartender, Mike, who liked us and joked around with us whenever we came in. One night…it was probably in February, that most notably boring and dreary month of the year, when Mike was pushing this new bowling league that was being formed. It was a coed league, any male-female configuration you wanted, and it played once a week. We were looking for something to do, so, OK, yeah, let’s sign up. There was only one of our group who was what you might call a real bowler. Susan actually focused while bowling and could usually roll about 150. Not bad. Ann and I weren’t awful, but we weren’t good either. I was happy to go over 120 and sad…though only minimally….if I fell under 100. And Brenda, well, Brenda was pathetic. She was my Asian-American friend who’s family owned the Chinese restaurant in town. I only mention her ethnicity because she was so funny and cute bowling so horribly each and every week.
The first week we started playing in this league, we realized we were in over our heads, bowling-wise. We were the only women who had signed up and everyone else knew what they were supposed to be doing…..and could actually do it. But, oh well, what the heck, it was just for fun anyway. Every week though, we did notice an interesting trend in our play. The matches consisted of 3 games. The first game we were all, except for Susan, quite awful. You could drink beer at this bowling alley which certainly livened and loosened things up, so that by the 2nd game, we could actually do unexpected things with our balls….like knock over multiple pins for strikes and spares. That second game was the Golden Slice of the match for us. However by the third game, we were no longer golden in the bowling department, but were certainly having fun anyway, what the heck. And every week, of course, we lost.
The other teams were mostly very nice young men. When they played us I’m sure they were quite happy to have an easy win and they were amused by our bowling in a joking sort of way. They were all friendly, but they were all into bowling, which pretty much sums it up about those guys. But it was a very pleasant couple of hours spent having fun and goofing around. There was one team, though, that was REALLY into this league. They were the top team in the league…undefeated…but super nerdy and very arrogant. They were NOT friendly. They took their bowling oh, so seriously! Eventually, it was our turn to play these bowling whizzes. I’d like to say it was the last match of the season….that would make the story even better, but in all honesty, I don’t believe it was. But no matter, I have no memory of the rest of the season anyway. We did nothing special to prepare for this match….the bottom team in the league against the top team in the league. We were loose, maybe we were a little more focused for this one; we knew it would take a miracle. So I guess a miracle is what took place. Somehow, we played the very best first game we’d ever played. It was stunning! We won that first game. And then it was as if a spell had been cast on that first place team. Those arrogant, nerdy, undefeated, unfriendly, seriously way-into-bowling guys completely fell apart! They could do nothing right and were going further down the dark hole with every missed pin. We were so loving it! For our part, we decided not to have that second beer this time. And so we won the whole shebang….the whole match!!! It was a David and Goliath kind of thing. We were in total shock and for a bunch of women who weren’t really taking this bowling thing seriously, we were way more excited than can be imagined. And that’s when IT happened. It was a spontaneous thing. We were all sort of jumping around when Brenda pushed her hands up into the air to slap mine and then Ann and Susan joined in and we were all slapping each others hands up there over our heads in jubilation. It was a phenomenal, historic and fabulous moment. Because that moment, right there in that bowling alley on Hillsboro St., in Raleigh, NC, was the exact moment when the High Five, the very one used by all sports teams to this day, that moment was when the much revered and always present symbol of victory…the HIGH FIVE….. was invented.
3 comments:
What a historic moment! I give you and the FOMAs a virtual high five. Were the guys gracious losers? Or did the high fives really rub it in?
Alyssa
Oh NO, there was nothing gracious about those guys. By the second game they were snorting at each other, so aggravated that they were losing to us. And we were also completely ungracious, cackling and crowing about our win.
Interesting to know.
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