Virtually Competitive

Last year when visiting our children, I was introduced to the Wii game from Nintendo. For those not up on tech games, this is the game where players wave controllers around, the game box follows them somehow and the results show up on the TV screen. It is a bit of mystery to me how it works but it does. Using this system, you can see the bowling ball you “threw” go down the alley and strike - or not- the pins. One can play tennis, baseball, golf and many other games. Some are very very hard.

But bowling isn’t too hard and it has become popular with old folks. We obtained a Wii set from Kendal last March and have been steadily engaged since. Every Friday afternoon we set up the “machine” in one of the activity rooms and everyone is welcome. We usually get 6 to 10 players a week. There is a faithful core of 6 or 7 and others come in on occasion to try their luck- or skill.

It may seem silly for a bunch of octogenarians to be playing like this. But it is fun. We are not very competitive but tend toward supporting each other. After all that is what we do all the time at Kendal. One 93 year old brought his grandkids to watch. They said they could NOT believe Grandpa was doing this. One upper 80-’s woman said after a strike, “You know, it really feels good.”

One actually can bowl sitting down, on even in a wheel chair but so far no one wants to. The game brings out the old competitive juices. When someone gets 7 strikes in a row or scores 250 or so, we put it in the newsletter. After all the bridge players publish their scores. Our game isn’t aerobic, but it does at least get some joints moving.

Now as to the other games. Several are talking about trying golf. The problem with golf is it takes as long as a real game, so they will have to find their own time. We tried baseball and tennis but the degree of difficulty goes way up. But Bowling seems just right.