mommy loves you, little pin

Have you been feeling a little abandoned? I know, I've been writing too many letters and spending too much time at work actually doing work to give you the attention you need and deserve, little sweetheart.

My mom had this desk in our living room for a long time it was a white desk with shiny brass handles. It was totally modern for 1987. It went with our decor of teal and black and brass and glass. I used to sit there a lot. It had a heavy chair with a tall back. This is where I used to write before I could write very well at all. My mom, if you haven't figured it out by now, is a single mother and had to work a lot when I was growing up (without that, we couldn't have had built a zip line in the back yard, made bombs, or had bb gun wars in the basement.) But one day, at her desk, with a highlighter and an index card, I wrote my first resignation letter. With everything misspelled, just as it would be now, I wrote a letter to my mother's boss about how she couldn't work there anymore because she missed her kids too much, and she needed to spend more time at home.

That's the way I feel about you.

Hush now, It's cold outside, why don't you cuddle up under here with me and I'll tell you a story? Do you want me to make you some hot cocoa?

This is the story of candlepin and duckpin bowling. Once upon a time there were two kinds two outcast kids on the east coast and no one would ever play with them. Candlepin was tall and slender and wobbled because he was tapered at both ends and Duckpin, was chubby and short and wasn't very good at being a pin at all. Each of them thought they were all alone in the world. Duckpin was forgotten almost everywhere he traveled too, and his enemy Bigpin, the bully, took over. Everywhere except for Baltimore. There he made a little home for himself, where everyone loved him even though he was sort of chubby and definitely shorter than the other pins. But sometimes he was lonely. He felt like he was the only pin out there besides Big Pin, He thought he was the only outsider.

Farther north, the same was true for Candlepin. He, sometimes, was lonely too. They said that he didn't have as much power as Big Pin because he was too skinny and too scrawny. So even when Big Pin in the famous Brunswick Brawl, tried to make him leave town and desert all of his friends, Candlepin refused. He stayed true to his northern roots and the kind people in the North took a liking to his bean stalk build.

It wasn't until Candlepin met Duckpin that all the magic happened. Duckpin and Candlepin found out that there was differences in everybody and everybody's okay. Even if you're too short, too fat, too tall, too lean, everybody is still great fun to be around. Even Big Pin. Together all the pins lived happily ever after.

Big Pin/ 10 pin

Candlepin

Duckpin


Here's a list of all the ways that someone can bowl and what the differences are between them. And different is Okay!

Balls per frame
duckpins = 3
tenpins = 2
rubber duckpins = 2
candlepins = 3
Canadian fivepin = 3

Shoot with deadwood?
duckpins = no
tenpins = no
rubber duckpins = no
candlepins = yes
Canadian fivepin = no

Max weight
of ball
duckpins = 3lbs. 12oz.
tenpins = 16 lbs.
rubber duckpins = 3lbs. 10oz.
candlepins = 2lbs. 7oz.
Canadian fivepin = 4lbs. / 3lbs. 10oz.

Holes in ball?
duckpins = no
tenpins = yes
rubber duckpins = yes/no
candlepins = yes
Canadian fivepin = no

Highest game bowled
duckpins = 279
tenpins = 300
rubber duckpins = 300
candlepins = 245
Canadian fivepin = 450

THE END

aw, that's all better now, isn't it?