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mid shelf bowling tequila
Friday, February 20 2009
Normally Gretchen and I would have pizza and beer for Friday dinner, but tonight, because of the small amount of vegan cheese in the house, we went with burritos instead. I could have gotten more cheese when I went into town to have my tuberculosis test read, but the only place in Kingston where vegan cheese can be bought is at two places along 9W, and I was only going to the near side of Kingston.
The burritos turned out to be absolutely wonderful, partly because I remembered to utilize an avocado that had been languishing for weeks in our fruit basket.
The plan for later was for us to go bowling with Penny and David, but Gretchen flaked out at the last minute, so it was just the three of us. We wanted to try out a midtown bowling alley (Mid-City Lanes) that Gretchen and I only recently became aware of. So that was our first destination. The place was packed and there were no lanes available, but even if there had been we might have found some other place to go. The place had a dreary beat-down feel, which came as no surprise in the dreariest, most beat-down part of one of the most beat-down Hudson River cities. Given the neighborhood, I expected more African American bowlers, but the demographic there was still mostly white. The sweeping generalization remains confirmed: bowling is a white working-class diversion.
Over at the Hoe Bowl on 9W (the place I usually go when I go bowling), there actually was a group of young African Americans using the lane to our left. The young men were even wearing doo rags. Using the lane to our right was a large group of white people of diverse ages. They had the bumpers out so there could be no gutterballs on their lane, leading Penny to wonder if perhaps they'd come from a residence catering to those with special needs.
For me, a good fraction of the fun of a bowling alley comes from partaking in the beer and french fries. But my gut was still full of burritos and the french fries at Hoe Bowl aren't very good. Penny suspects their ketchup isn't even Heinz. For beers, Penny and David stuck to the kind of good beers that were available before the microbrew revolution: Dos Equis and Becks. Meanwhile I was drinking tap Budweiser from a plastic cup, which was (I thought) more in the spirit of bowling. This did not, however, help my score. Both Penny and David scored about 30% better than me in all three games we played.
Penny and David were treating me as though it was still my birthday, buying drinks for me and paying for things despite my protests. Penny even had me do a shot of tequila with her. She asked the old lady behind the bar if they had anything better than José Cuervo and the lady chuckled and reminded her that it was just a bowling alley. In the end Penny couldn't finish her shot, so I drank what she didn't. I'm perfectly happy with José Cuervo as a tequila; indeed, I sipped mine instead of "shooting" it because I like to be able to taste my liquor.
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