Atypical

An interesting observation, the music tends to change to fit the audience.  Even though the music is always fast paced and exciting, the exact artist and songs change according to the event.  During the Sunday tournaments, when the patrons are predominately adults who appear to be between 35 and 70 the music is classic rock, such as AC/DC’s “TNT,” During the party the music was rap.  Today the three songs that stood out the most were a pop version of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” and Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.”  The audience, teen and young adults. 

Before I get into today’s events and the unusual demographics of patrons, I thought I would mention that Grease Stains (the man who last Saturday was fixing lanes 28-32) today took out the trash when I was there.  This is the first time I have seen any worker do any sort of cleaning work.  Grease Stains had been cleaning the tables, when he put in his back pocket the rag he used to clean, grabbed from two different trash cans two trash bags, one in each hand, and left through a side door, propping it open, and leaving a trail of juices behind him as he left. 

Grease Stains was gone for three to five minutes before returning, closing the door behind him.  He walked, almost reaching the quick service food station before slipping on his trail.  Annoyed he threw the table rag onto the floor and used his foot to wipe up some of the muck, leaving small spots along the floor, and leaving the final foot leading up to the door untouched.  Satisfied with his half-done work Grease Stains picked up his rag, put it back in his back pocket, went to the food station again, grabbed himself a drink, and went to the billiards room.  He came back after two minutes and flirted with one of the girls manning the shoe station.  During their chat the girl handed Grease Stains a metal wire, he left his drink with the shoes, and used the wire on one of the lanes as the girl tended to a patron.  When he finished his work he returned, and spent the rest of the evening with the girl behind the counter. 

It’s Saturday.  There are no children today.  There are teens however, teens and young adults, and many of them are on their phones.  This is the first time I’ve seen someone who wasn’t a worker on their phone.   Directly in front of me there is a team of five adults who are playing together. They spend most of their time seated together at a table of four, one of the girls is seated in a man’s lap.  They flirt and make out.  The next table over has a group of young adults in university attire (from a university in Michigan), enjoying a pitcher of beer.  Further down another group of five caught my attention, they each have their own seats, being that a portly man in a blue plaid shirt had taken a bar stool and put it with the rest at the table.  He was eating pizza.

The arcade was full.  One young teen, maybe preteen, in a gray polo, ran over to Blue Plaid and asked him for money.  Plaid wiped his face, moved his trash to another table, and went with him to the food station.  They left the food station after a few minutes carrying a cue ball.  They went to the pool table closest to us, and started setting up, when they suddenly stopped and started talking.  (It was at this time that the party of five that was seated in front of me left, each carrying their own bowling shoes to turn in.)  Plaid returned to his pizza as Gray Polo started pacing.  He then ran to the arcade, and returned after a few minutes with two girls.  When he returned Plaid came back, and helped the boy set up the table.  They then started playing, the Gray teaching the girls how to play as Plaid watched and offered pointers. 

Another group that was invading the arcade were also playing.  They were four teenage boys, two in black shirts with long hair and black gages (earnings), one in a white shirt and one in a dark green shirt.  All four were very lanky.  They started out just bowling (none of them used the traditional technique, one of them even threw the ball so that it bounced) and snapping pictures with their phones of the score, then they started getting more wild.  Eventually when one of the boys in a black shirt bowled a gutter ball the boy in the green shirt got up and bowled with him in the same turn, sending two balls across the lane to knock over all the pins.  They ended up with pins 7 and 10 still up.  As he was bowling, white shirt, who had finished his drink, took his drink and finished it as well.  By the time their game started winding down they started going to the arcade to play air hockey together, only coming back to bowl their turns.