People and Places | Striking up friendships

Jeff Blake/jblake@thestate.com

Kay Bee, 88, is congratulated by Juan Fagtanac, 73, left, and Carl Wright, 65, (both cq) during their twice-weekly bowling outing at Anchor Lanes in Irmo. The large group of seniors meet each Monday and Thursday at the alley to bowl.

Lezlie Patterson

News Columnist

lpatterson@thestate.com
(803) 315-4955

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Lezlie Patterson writes an occasional column about people and places in Lexington County and the Lexington-Richland 5 school district.

If you have an idea for a person or place Lezlie should feature in this column, e-mail Lexington County editor Shelley Hill .

Bowling league for over-55 crowd mostly about the camaraderie

Kay Bee loves bowling strikes.

“I’m happy with a spare, too,” she said.

But more than that, she loves the people who are bowling strikes, spares and splits around her.

Twice weekly, about 40 bowlers ages 55-90 gather for an afternoon of bowling at Anchor Lanes in Irmo.

Those bowlers fill the lanes Mondays and Thursdays. There are those strikes, spares and splits, interspersed with a lot of laughter and chatter.

“The people here, this is my family,” says Bee, who retired here from West Virginia in 1979.

“When I lost my husband (in December), they were my family then and more so now,” the 88-year-old says.

Folks stroll from station to station to discuss that day’s bowling — and everything else.

Some laugh when they bowl strikes; others pump their fists in the air. Some are serious and competitive, but most just like the camaraderie.

“I tell them don’t worry about the score too much,” says Jack Taylor, 89, who runs the senior league. “We’re here for fun, fellowship and to eat twice a month.

“It can’t be any better than that.”

Bowling isn’t just a fun activity for the league members — it’s actually good for them, says Chhanda Dutta, chief of the clinical gerontology staff at the National Institute on Aging.

Being involved in such an activity helps them physically as well as mentally, Dutta says. “So it’s a win-win situation.”

Like many of his fellow bowlers, Taylor has enjoyed the sport for decades. He started in the 1950s. He might not knock over as many pins as he used to, “but I enjoy it. It’s still just as much fun.”

Jean Peaden is one of the few who learned to bowl after retirement. Now Peaden, 69, is hooked.

But that’s not why she looks forward to the league. “It’s these people,” she says. “The camaraderie, the social part.”

And the competition — the friendly, teasing sort. Well, for the most part.

“I like the people, and I like the score when I do well,” says Barbara Thomas, 72. “The men are competitive. The women just like to talk.”

Jo Ann Dillard, 67, jokingly threatens to quit when she has an off day, “if it wasn’t for the companionship.

Dick Nelson, 88, has been bowling for about “40 or 50 years.”

“I get worse every year,” he says.

When he broke his hip and leg more than a year ago, “he made up his mind he was going to get better,” says Dorothy Funk, his wife.

And when he did, he returned to his twice-weekly bowling league.