My first true introduction to bocce ball took place in St. Louis, Missouri in the neighborhood famously known as "the Hill." It is the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis. The bars in that neighborhood (also part of the introduction) generally have several bocce courts in the back. These were outdoor courts, and most play was "under the lights." On the other hand, there was usually beer present and Italian sausage/Italian beef combos, so bocce was just something you noticed in passing. Old Italian people (known as geezers) take the game quite seriously, it seems it has been played by the Italians since (I am not making this up) since the days of the Roman Emire.By the way, the game requires only a single pallino and, of course, the bocce--the balls. Its object is to roll the bocce closest to the pallino, which is rolled first.
You might now have gathered that "bocce ball" is a redundancy--Loosely translated, "bocce ball" is "ball ball." God only knows how the scoring is determined. It usually is determined by the ancient Italian fellow sitting over there. Know anything else run by ancient Italian gentlemen?
Years later, I moved to an island--one that has regular tides that come in and leave twice daily. The result is that the sand is hard on most of the beach. The sun comes up and begins to dry the sand and loosen the grains, only to be soaked back in by the incoming tide. When the tide rolls out, it leaves behind compacted sand. The other thing that tides tend to do is to cause the surface to slope toward the sea. This would make quite difficult almost any game involving rolling balls across the sandy surface. Billiards for instance, would be challenging; don't you think? For reasons unknown to me, bocce has migrated here. To a surface that makes the pallone and the balls themselves roll a great distance. Where a ball pitched across the the sand tends to curve in the direction of that slope, in much the same way that the surface of a putting green causes a ball to bend as it rolls. The only apparent rewarding aspects of this game are the fact that the accompanying beverage of choice is usually beer, and, there are often pretty, scantily clad ladies present. Of course, the same is true under a beach umbrella, and it's cooler and presents fewer health risks, such as sunburn, skin cancer, sunstroke, rotator cuff injury, etc. So, I soon talked myself out of taking up beach bocce. This also avoided the investigation now underway by the FBI (Federation de Boules Internationale). This is a far-reaching bunch, it boasts fifty-one (51) chapters in countries on every continent except Antarctica. Who knows, with global warming, there may be beaches there shortly, then....
However, the FBI has been visiting beaches across the U.S., to determine whether bocce may be played on beaches without being sanctioned. After all, the Italians (and other Europeans), have beaches and do not play on the beach. South America and Australia also have famous beaches, is bocce played on the beach there as well? The FBI is on full alert and investigating committees, known as BBBIP (Bocce Beach Beer Investigating Parties), are visiting beaches all over the globe.
However, as I mentioned, bocce on the beach is not tempting me at all. The other classic form of bocce is played in my neighborhood. I do live in the land of geezers, many of whom are Italian-American. Just a year after we moved in, the Property Owners Association built a series of bocce courts to keep our Italian-American Association from seceding from the neighborhood. Thus, when the opportunity arose three years ago on a New Years' Eve to play bocce, I dove right in. The fact that it was on the hallowed ground of The Hill in St. Louis made it even more fortuitous, or so I thought. Instead we (the two guys) were thrashed by the two women we played against. There was a ringer involved--who ever heard of a ladies bocce league--well, I guess in St. Louis. I have not felt the urge again since. Until today that is, as I drove into our neighborhood this evening, I noticed a sign--Bocce Tournament, Saturday, 1 PM. I just wish I could remembeer the name of that woman who thrashed us on New Years' Eve three years ago, I'd love to have her help me trounce a few of those old geezers!
OK, it was a FIB, it wasn't the FBI. The acronym for the indternational federation is really FIB (Federation Internationale de Boules).
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