(upbeat music) (pins rattling) (upbeat music) - Ball, sir, good ball, good ball.

(pins rattling) We're at Liberty Lanes, Gastonia, North Carolina.

We are bowling in our seniors league.

- So this is Tuesday morning, the older but better league.

- This league has been here over 30 something years, almost 40 years.

It's a mixed senior league.

We have them from anywhere from the ages from 50 to 93.

- On Tuesday mornings, at 10 o'clock, we have a senior league, and they have about about 20, 22 teams, three people on a team.

So there's like 66 seniors in here at one time.

- We're out here because of this boy right here.

- Ah, don't even do it, don't even do it.

- That's the bowling dog right there, y'all.

'Cause my wife, she was actually bowling in the league before I was.

You don't want me to strike right there, right?

And so she kept asking me, "Are you gonna come to bowl with me, are you gonna come bowl with me?"

There you go!

- Nice job!

- There you go!

There you go!

So I decided to come and bowl with her, and I've enjoyed every moment ever since.

Well, I was in the military, I was gone for 25 years in the military.

Once I moved back up here, I retired from the military, started looking for centers to bowl, and this is my happy place.

- I think they're very special.

As we matriculate through life and you get older, it ain't like a lot of young people be rushing to your house, be it your kids or your niece and nephew.

You know, so these relationships are lasting relationships, and you just build upon it.

So it's a great place to socialize.

- They said, this is a family, we're one big family, and everybody here supports the other person.

If you need something, you ask, you got it.

- About nine years ago, when I was living in Northern Virginia, Alexandria, to be specific, I was diagnosed with cancer.

And then, we moved here about 3 1/2 years ago, and then they picked me up down here, the VA was tracking me.

And about a year ago he said, "The mass is starting to get bigger."

And so we said, "Let's go and, you know, start chemo."

When I completed the third round, we did another PET scan and it was completely clear, like I never had cancer in my body.

Just been encouraging and coming to the bowling alley.

You know, and I told them, I had texted them after that third round and said, "Hey, guys, I'm back."

The community, the socialization, I mean, we all experience different things in life and we deal with it in different ways, and so it helped, you know, having the positivity.

I think sometimes in life we get in toxic relationships, and we need to have positive relationship.

We need to be positive affirmations and encourage one another.

(upbeat music) (pins rattling) We go from 50 to 98 and everything in between.

And to see people that are seniors still active, still socializing, it's encouraging for the younger ones of 50 and even the younger, the youth, that, "Hey, you don't have to fall off, you can still stay alive, do activity," and bowling will do that for you.

(upbeat music) - Bowling's good exercise because it strengthens the muscles in the arms, the legs, the backs, and also it's good friendship, and keeps the morale and the emotions up.

- We came back bowling after the two years of the virus for the fellowship, the exercise, and just being able to get out.

I am 93 years old, and I have been bowling, I guess, over 40 years.

- You're never too old to bowl.

- That's right, you're never too old.

And I'm gonna bowl as long as the good Lord lets me.

(upbeat music)