Mario is the author of ‘Joy of Bocce’, the definitive bocce manual for young and old.  He’s also the head of the Ken Waldie Senior Sports Circuit in Methuen, Mass.

So it was a feather in her cap to have him come up, and for weeks, Jean had been planning a bocce game and dinner over at the Senior Center. 

Chris and I were invited too, so after Chris got off work on Sunday, we loaded up the car with stuff and Chris put on his Bocce Buddies of Bath baseball cap and we trotted down to the Senior Center.

The reason the game was over at the Senior Center was that the park isn’t quite ready (no porta-potties or benches by the courts yet) and there were expected too many people to play on the public courts.  Plus, a lot of the old folks like to play indoors in the hot weather.  And, a dinner was planned, too.  Altogether too much trouble to bring everything out to the park.  But I imagine the ‘Jack Hart Park’ courts will get a decent share of play soon enough.  I think I’m just going to start calling it that, and see if it catches on.

Anyhow, Chris and I made lasagna (well, I made it) and brought a punch bowl and made citrus punch. The place was decorated with bird houses and garden flowers, and looked very summery.  Games were already underway indoors, and other people were playing outside on the bocce courts the community helped build last year. 

Then we went out to play, and somehow, we ended up on a team opposite Mario Himself.

Mario was very knowledgeable, and he brought with him seven other knowledgeable bocce players from Massachusetts.  They were all happy to share their font of wisdom (and their fonts runneth over, to be sure), so it was all the sweeter when we beat Mario literally at his own game.

Twice.  Heh.  We should have made it interesting.

But Mario was good natured about it.  He just kept playing, he said, until he beat somebody.  I think he was out there for a couple of hours. 

Also in attendance was Mike Field from the Bath Police Department and Stephen Hinds from the Fire Department.  Both of them had to leave early for work related reasons, and I guess we couldn’t really complain about that.

Except for Chris and me, that was it for the locals.  Except of course, for the Bocce Buddies of Bath, those barricudas.
A dinner soon followed, with tons of good food and desserts, and then we played again indoors because it started raining.
I imagine that is not the last we’ll see of Mario and his gang.  Jean is already planning to take some of the Bocce Buddies down soon for a rematch.

Chris and I are looking forward to playing in earnest down at Jack Hart Park.  We have our own set, or rather, Chris does.  But bocce isn’t as much fun with just two people, and besides, Rudie the Dog keeps stealing the pallino. 

So we don’t play too often.  But we’re trying to help Jean get more people excited about bocce, and out there playing before the weather closes in.

Right now, it looks like Chris and his Bocce Baristas and I and my Linen Drapers will be free more or less on Thursday nights around 6 p.m.  We’re going to guilt the police and fire department into it, but they really like it, so they’ll get over it pretty soon.  Got a team you’d like to field?  Just interested in learning how to play?  Email me and we’ll see if we can’t start beating the pants off the Senior Center players.  Don’t be too discouraged if it doesn’t happen right away, though ... they had a sizeable head start.

And they play like sharks.