Buddies in bowling

Betty Haffner and Maxine Hartzell have been bowling together since the 1960s.

In more than 60 years, some variables have changed. Haffner recalls when it cost 10 cents per game. Bowlers originally had to set their own pins after each frame.

They’ve also noticed their age has impacted their bowling abilities.

But one factor has remained constant through the years — their desire to keep playing.

Hartzell, 95, enjoys the socialization that comes with it. In the past, she spent her Friday nights at the Portland bowling alley.

“I started bowling in the ’50s,” she explained. “Women didn’t bowl too much back then like the men (did).”

She remembered how players had to keep an eye on their shoes. (The lanes were susceptible to shoe thieves.) Her husband, Walter, had his own pair stolen at least once.

“They couldn’t afford to go buy new shoes,” she remarked.

As she became a more seasoned bowler, Hartzell often joined teams as a fill-in whenever a player was sick or unable to make a game.

That’s how she met Haffner, 85, when she joined the Peppy Dog Food team in the early 1960s. They’ve bowled together ever since.

The long-time friends both carried mid-160 average scores when they were younger. They bowled in various teams and leagues and remember making the 600 Club, scoring more than 600 points in three games. Haffner also coached for a while.

Outside of bowling, Haffner remained active. A Portland High School graduate, she met her husband, Jack, while bowling in the Marsh league her senior year of high school in 1953 and ‘54. (He died six years ago.)

For 26 years, she drove a bus for Jay School Corporation. She had a job at Marsh for some time as well, although she did not work while her children were growing up. Haffner enjoyed camping, horseback riding and visiting state parks in Indiana as well as West Virginia and Ohio with Jack.

She currently volunteers in the gift shop at IU Health Jay.

In the early 1940s, Hartzell worked in factories during the war effort. She was only 15 years old when she started her first job in a Portland factory. Hartzell remembers asking her parents to sign a waiver allowing her to work. Her father wouldn’t sign it, but her mother did, and she only needed one parent to put ink to paper.

She met her late husband, Walter, while he was playing in a baseball game in the ’40s. He offered to drive her home that day, she recalled, at a time when gasoline was limited.

They married soon after the war and stayed together until 1976, when Walter had a heart attack and died while coaching on the baseball diamond.

Their husbands’ deaths didn’t keep either woman from continuing their bowling careers. Haffner and Hartzell played together up until last year, when Hartzell fell mid-roll and injured her knee. She’s had a few other health problems since and isn’t sure when she’ll return to bowling.

Their age is starting to affect their skill, making it harder to practice certain techniques.

“I’m having a hard time giving it up, but I know I should,” Haffner noted. She likes the challenge of improving her score through the season, although her average has decreased in recent years.

“I carried 160 until I got arthritis,” she admitted.

Haffner once bowled with a 14.5-pound ball, but she has opted for lightweight balls in recent years. It’s not the same, she explained.

“You can’t bowl as (well) with a 10-pound ball,” Haffner said. “We show up every week, but we don’t always do the best.”

“No, but we have fun,” Hartzell chimed in.