Sunday, February 14, 1999

League bowling is society's glue

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We're becoming a nation of the alienated

BY KAREN SAMPLES
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        BELLEVUE — Okay, confession time. I'm thinking about paying money so I won't have to bowl anymore.

        I know it's silly and wimpish of me, not to mention un-American. Oh well. I need my Monday nights back. Plus I stink at bowling.

        Nothing against Bellewood Lanes, where my team regularly hovers near last place, but whatever made me commit to 36 weeks of this? We pay $9 a night, and I'm seriously considering buying my way into free agency.

        If only Robert Putnam hadn't written about the connection between bowling leagues and American democracy.

        Remember his theory? In 1995, the Harvard professor wowed everyone from Bill Clinton to the editors of People with a paper called “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital.”

        Our society is hurting because people don't join community associations as they used to, Mr. Putnam said. These groups — the Lions Club, the parent-teacher association, the Boy Scouts — taught us to trust each other and participate in public life, he said. Back then, we voted more frequently and attended more town meetings.

        A strong democracy depends on citizens with such connections, the professor concluded. Without them, we devolve into a grumpy bunch waiting for government to solve our problems.

        He cited the decline of bowling leagues as part of the problem. From 1980 to 1993, the number of bowlers in the United States increased 10 percent, but bowling in organized leagues dropped 40 percent.

        So you can see why I'm freaking out. Here I am,

        preaching from this space about the importance of getting involved, and I can't even make a Monday-night bowling commitment. Cripes. It's embarrassing.

        So maybe the theory is wrong.

        Consider those angry residents who butted heads with the Crescent Springs City Council last year. Would time served in a bowling league have made any difference?

        It never occurred to me. Instead, I suggested they join the mayor for professional mediation.

        What a dumb idea, one reader responded. American government is a representative system, not a group-therapy session, he said.

        True enough. But my idea sprang from a sense that Crescent Springs residents had forgotten how to participate in civic life, or even how to listen when somebody else was talking. My instinct was to ship them off to school.

        For some sage advice on these matters, I stopped by Bellewood Lanes last Wednesday.

        Earl Rogers, 60, bowls with Mike Borchers, with whom he works at the Kenton County Jail; Mr. Borchers' two sons, Marc and Martin; and Phil Wieland, a delivery coordinator for a drug-store chain.

        The five of them don't talk politics, religion or PTAs, Mr. Rogers says. Between games, nobody organizes a committee to fight tire dumps or plant flowers around town.

        “It's a night out with the boys,” Mr. Rogers says.

        Still, I notice something about these boys. They cheer whenever anybody bowls a strike, no matter whose team they're on. And gosh, what about Mr. Borchers, bowling every week with his two grown sons?

        Marc Borchers didn't hesitate to get mushy.

        “He's a great father,” he told me.

        Also on Mr. Rogers' team is Phil Wieland of Bellevue.

        On Wednesday night, Mr. Wieland really should have been home, repairing his sleeping bag. The Boy Scouts were having a Camporee this weekend, and he's assistant district commissioner.

        Great. A bowler who's also involved with the Boy Scouts. Robert Putnam couldn't have hired a better cast.

        Then there's Tom Jump, captain of the league. Besides his bowling duties, he serves as an adjutant in the American Legion and a member of the Independence Board of Adjustment, of all the thankless civic jobs.

        Mr. Jump says the number of teams in his bowling league has declined from about 18 to 10 over the last decade. He thinks too many other forces are consuming people's time. The one he happens to mention: Internet surfing.

        That may be a pleasant diversion, but it can't be any match for bonding over bowling.

        The more I circulated Wednesday, the more I detected a network: Dave Whitford of Union, for instance, gets roofing jobs from his fellow bowlers. His wife, Sue, sees bowling friends all over town. They always say hi, which makes Mrs. Whitford look very popular.

        She knows some of the bowlers are battling cancer right now. She's especially close to Ed Perry, 78, who joined her team after somebody else quit.

        Mr. Perry, of Fort Thomas, bowls three times a week. Hanging out with the “youngsters” keeps his blood circulating, he says.

        Okay. Maybe I'll give bowling another chance. Just don't expect me to volunteer for the Board of Adjustment.

        Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or by e-mail at: ksamples@enquirer.com.

        Karen Samples is The Enquirer's Kentucky columnist. Her column appears on Sundays and Thursdays in The Kentucky Enquirer. She can be reached at 578-5584 or email her at ksamples@enquirer.com

SAMPLES ARCHIVE