LEWISTON — Paige Gonya had been bowling well all night. Who could blame her for taking a break to grab a party hat and a noisemaker?
“I’ve already won a game,” the 11-year-old Sabattus girl said before tugging on the hat and heading back to the lanes.
A short distance away, 9-year-old Luke Booker was making funny faces at his mother. When she looked away for just a second, he blew a party favor in her ear and laughed uproariously.
“Write it down,” the Lisbon boy said. “We’re embarrassing our mother tonight.”
If she was embarrassed, Angie Booker hid it well. It wasn’t the traditional New Year’s Eve celebration, but she was having fun and it showed.
“It’s different when you have kids,” Angie said. “This is a first for us.”
It was a first for lots of folks, as it turns out. The Sparetime Recreation Ultimate Bowling Bash was so popular for New Year’s Eve, lanes had been booked months in advance.
“I’ve had people come in who just want to bowl,” Sparetime Manager Sara Levasseur said. “And I don’t have any lanes for them.”
Go figure. Bowling is the one way to make absolutely sure you have a ball on New Year’s Eve.
“We’ve got kids here, family and friends,” said Ken Gauthier, who had just bowled back-to-back strikes. “It’s just good fun — that’s what it’s all about.”
Gauthier claimed to be a terrible bowler, in spite of the strikes. Bowling in the new year, he said, isn’t really about competition. It’s about spending time with people you love.
George Chandler seemed to agree with that idea, right up until the point where he bowled a strike of his own and the celebration began.
“I’m just getting warmed up,” Chandler said, doing a little dance. “Wait until they start playing Elvis. That’s when I start rocking.”
To be fair, Chandler and his wife, Donna, are in a regular bowling league. Normally, they’d be up for a competitive game, but come on. It was New Year’s Eve.
“It’s fun time,” Donna said, “and bowling is good therapy.”
Lisa Barlow said she’s always liked bowling on New Year’s Eve because it’s something she can do with her kids. Like others, she finds it a nice alternative to the more traditional festivities — cramming into crowded bars, paying for expensive drinks and staying up all night just to watch the calendar change.
“I used to stay up just to watch the ball drop,” Gauthier said.
As it turned out, he got to watch the ball drop this New Year’s Eve, as well. He just kept picking it up again and flinging it back down the lane.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.