Getting trounced by the old folks

by Gina Hamilton
Coastal Journal editor

This weekend we were wined and dined by the Senior Center on account of Chris and Starbucks donating coffee to the Bocce Buddies of Bath.

Wined is perhaps an overstatement ... they don’t allow liquor at the Senior Center ... but we were dined, in any case. And of course they did have great coffee.

It was a nice dinner, with everyone making a special dish, and then several more special desserts. And then Chris, along with Skip Cahill, who had donated money to pay for two new bocce sets, Jason Shaw, who had donated labor and materials to build the outdoor courts, Chief Steve Hinds, who conjured up a few old city park benches for the activity park, were called up and publically exposed for their part in the project, which was to build two outdoor bocce courts next to the Senior Center on Floral Street. Dick Higgins, President of the Senior Center, who twice a week rolls out the carpets, and Jerry Little, the Secretary of the Senior Center, who rolled and raked the outdoor courts all summer, were honored, too. And there were a lot of people who were invited but couldn’t make it to the dinner. They were each given a red Bocce Buddies of Bath hat, and were all very proud of them.

After that, the Bocce Ball Maven herself, Jean Anthony, was also publically exposed for her role in the thing. Jean, who also serves as the CJ’s History Reporter, started the Bocce Ball rolling, so to speak, by sort of moving in and taking over at the Senior Center, getting the hundred or so people who donated things to donate them, and getting a major grant from the Davenport Foundation to build even more bocce courts at the South End Park, also known as the Dog Park. They should be going in soon. She also teaches bocce to kids at the library and has taught it at Huse School in the Weed and Seed program for kids on Saturdays.

It is safe to say that before Jean, Bath had never heard of bocce. Our fair city dwelt calmly in its ignorance of the game. Now we are, in the words of my friend Seth over the the Times-Record, in the midst of a Bocce Craze.

And Jean is wholly, utterly, responsible. Yes, we all played our small parts. But none of it would have happened if not for Jean’s singleminded determination.

She got a nice certificate of appreciation for all her hard work and a set of silver French bocce-ball-like objects that someone had found at a yard sale. They were gorgeous. The game, in French, is known as Petanque.

But I digress.

Before the lovely dinner, we played bocce on the two indoor courts. When I say “indoor courts”, what I really mean is a couple of rolls of fake grass with some blocks around the sides, held together with cut-off clipboards, and some plastic pipe at the ends to keep the balls from rolling off and getting lost. They play bocce at the Center twice a week, and when they do, they have to roll out the grass rugs and put all the rails together, which is quite a bit of work. And then of course, roll them up and put them away afterwards.

Playing inside is not as easy as playing outside, at least for us. The balls don’t slow down inside, and roll off to the end of the court where they are declared “dead balls”.

The old folks play like sharks.

On our team we had Faith, who had once had Chief Hinds in her fifth grade classroom. We were very lucky to have her. She rolls the ball straight and true, and somehow manages to get the large ball, called a bocce or boule, depending on which romance language you happen to be speaking at the time, behind the little white ball, called the pallino. This should be physically impossible, but she somehow manages to do it every time.

Each team has four people on each side of the court. The teams are “red” or “green” depending on which color bocce balls one is pitching down the court. The two teams on the same side of the court take turns, with the winning team of the previous frame getting to throw the pallino. It seems to me you are better off being second to bowl, because you have last ups in each frame, kind of like baseball, and if you are really good, like Faith is, you can hit the other team’s ball away from the little pallino or hit the pallino away from the other team’s balls.

The opposite team on our side of the court had Herman in it, and Herman is a wiseacre. He thanked everyone who didn’t bowl well (that would be me).

There was, come to think of it, a whole lot of good natured bantering going on among all parties.

Your team has to amass sixteen points to win.

It was sweet when our team actually won, although I don’t imagine for a New York minute that my dubious bocce skills had aught to do with it.

Still, it is fun, and we have fun playing with the seniors, even when we do get trounced. Chris says it is a game he’d pay to play.

Soon, there will be courts open to the public down at the South End Park, and they will be open to everyone, for free, if those of us under the age of 65 can get a bocce ball in edgewise. Get yourselves a set of bocce balls, get a group of friends and relatives together, and come down and learn how to play. The folks at the Senior Center will be happy to teach you. Call and find out when they have the rugs down to play. Just remember ... they’re sharks.