Page 8
ifSWi
JANUARY, 1956
Bowling Teams Niimber 35 This Season
BOWLING at Firestone is a popular women's sport. Among
some 35 teams here this season, 8 are made up of women, and 8
teams are composed of both men and women. The Main Office team
here includes Doris McCready, Jerry Barton, Frances Bolick, De-
lores Turner and Martha Kendrick. Gene Alexander is absent from
the picture.
SPOOLING team, first shift, has on it Cloe McDaniel, Lenora
York, Ruth Neal, Jean Bell, Audrey Robinson and Nell Bolick.
When members of the 35 bowling teams at Fire
stone hear the thunder of wooden pins knocked
from their footing by a ball slammed down a
wooden platform at the Men’s Club, they’re par
ticipating in a sport that’s at least 7,000 years
old. And their taking part in the game gives
them something in common with some 18,000,000
people in the United States alone. Because bowl
ing is the world’s largest participant sport, and
one in which a woman has an equal chance to
beat a man.
Reputed to be the most popular indoor game in
America, bowling is definitely the most preferred
indoor game in all Firestone plants. The best
organized of all sports has some 200 men and
women on the 20 teams at the plant here.
HISTORICALLY, equipment used in playing
a game similar to modern tenpins has been found
in an Egyptian excavation dating back to 5200
B.C. The game somewhat as we know it today,
had its origin in ancient Germany. The game has
gone through numerous changes and modifica
tions through the centuries, and not until the
American Bowling Congress was established in
1895, was bowling standardized to the degree we
know it today.
Now, some 85,000 bowling alleys in 12,000 es
tablishments are open day and night, as men,
women and children take part in this favorite
sport.
As recent as the third or fourth centuries, bowl
ing was a part of a religious ritual. Members of
church flocks who made good scores earned for
themselves praise. Those who failed to get a hit
were admonished to mend their ways and come
back to roll a better game—as proof of their up
rightness.
BOWLING at pins spread from Germany into
the lowlands of Europe, and into Austria, through
the 15, 16 and 17th centuries. But it met with
little popularity in England, Scotland, Ireland,
Italy and France. In the 14th century, Edward III
in England banned participation in bowling,
fearing that the game’s popularity would lead to
a waning interest in archery as a weapon of the
military.
In the American colonies, the Holland Dutch
were credited with having brought the ninepin
game with them when they came to Manhattan
Island. Because gamblers in the mid-1800’s gave
bowling a questionable reputation, laws were
passed to put a stop to playing the game of nine
pins, which then was standard play. Some en
terprising person added a tenth pin, changed the
setup from diamond to triangular shape, and so
began the form of tenpins as known in the United
States and other countries today.
Early bowling alleys were outdoor greens.
Later, rolled and leveled clay courts were used,
such as are employed in the ancient game of
Bocce, which has been in revival at the plant
here for more than two years. Eventually, wood
en alleys were adopted.
DUCKPINS AND BALL — Most popular at
Firestone are the duckpins, which are smaller
than tenpins. The duckpin ball weighs approxi
mately five pounds, while the tenpin ball weighs
12 pounds or over. Some men's teams here are
playing tenpins this season.
Road To School
Beset By Danger
On that trip between home and
school nearly 2,000 children are
killed annually, with thousands
more injured. The Institute for
Safer Living of the American
Mutual Liability Insurance Com
pany advises keeping these
points in mind.
Work out and use the safest
route to and from school with
your child; teach him to walk
on the extreme left edge of the
road, always facing oncoming
traffic, if there is no walk; Im
press your children with the
need for obeying traffic officers,
school crossing guards, school
safety patrols or mechanical
signs and signals.
Wise distrust and constant
watchfulness are the parents of
safety.
WATCH FOR THESE 3 COUNTRY DRIVING HAZARDS
o\
Dt^NCER
SINUEIANE
tRIPOE
Driving on city streets and getting there on country roads is different.
Be mindful and on the look-out for these three dangers often
present in country driving.
Road shoulders that may be
lower and softer than the pave
ment. If you get off the pave
ment, keep control by holding
the car to a straight course and
coast to a slop rather than by
jerking the steering wheel or
jamming on the brakes.
The bridge that's narrower than
the approaching roadway. Slow
down and drive cautiously.
Curves on roads that aren't
banked properly. To take
these curves slow down while
approaching the curve, take it
easy while rounding it, and re
sume speed after leaving the
curve.
© AMERICAN MUTUAL LIAB. INS. CO.
KEGLERS representing Personnel are Flora Pence, Martha
Morrow, Frances Callaway, Beatrice Bradshaw and Mazel John
son. Irene Purkey was not present for the picture.
Card Demonstration Shows
Method Of Waste Reduction
Six men from the plant attended the card demonstration held
at North Carolina Vocational Textile School in Belmont, which
ended in early December. They were Philip Williams, S. L. Owens,
Carl Rape, F. R. Welch, Lee Owens and Raymond Mack. All are
from the Cotton Division, except Mr. Mack, who is in Quality
Control.
The demonstration was co-sponsored by the Research Depart
ment of the School of Textiles at State College in Raleigh and
the North Carolina Vocational Textile School at Belmont.
One of the cards at the School in Belmont was set up with
certain speeds and settings to demonstrate how card waste may be
reduced without sacrificing quality.
Officials at the School made appointments with the textile plants
and a representative of the research department of the School of
Textiles in Raleigh conducted the demonstration.
More than 160 persons representing 62 textile plants attended.
FIRESTONE TEXTILES
P. O. BOX 551
GASTONIA, N. C.
SEC. 34.66 P. L. & R.
U. S. POSTAGE
PAID
GASTONIA, N. C.
PERMIT NO. 29
Form 3547 Requested