Somewhere Between the Moon and Hell

I just finished a book “Last Bus for Wisdom” by Ivan Doig. I rarely read fiction, but the name of the book got me. The story is set in Wisdom, a town in Montana in the late 40’s and it is about a 12-year-old boy whose grandmother sends him off to be with his Aunt and Uncle in Ohio because she can no longer care for him since she is going to the hospital for a serious operation.

The story regales the reader with his adventures on a Greyhound bus from Montana to Ohio; his short stay with his Aunt Kate and Uncle Dutch and how he and Dutch scramble to get away from Kate.

They get out of the Ohio town and take a bus back out West where they have more adventures. His Uncle, a German immigrant tells him that the trip feels like “somewhere between the moon and hell.”

It’s up to the reader to decide if the story is closer to the moon or closer to hell. I chose it to be closer to the moon. I’m sure other readers would view it closer to hell.
Most bowling proprietors would view our current situation closer to hell than to the moon, I am sure because of several factors

• Health concerns about Covid, especially among those who have not been vaccinated
• Lack of league bowlers due to the Covid restrictions
• Open play programs, birthday parties and company parties down for the same reasons
• Not being able to get any help because of the government bailouts to individuals who now may not need to work, at least for a while anyway
• Customer resistance to masks

Here are some suggestions:

• Utilize 8-to-12-week league formats, combine food and beverage and a weekly prize like $25 Amazon or Best Buy gift card for high score, high average, low score, low average, etc. Use a different one each week
• Open play programs that charge by the hour per individual. Minimum of two on a lane.
  • Offer an incentive for 5 on a lane, like a FREE pizza. If you charged $12 a person for 2 hours, you would get $60 less the cost of the pizza ($4 to $6) so you would net about $55. Even if they bowled 10 games, you would get $5.50 per game
    
• Offer cash incentives to employees for length of service. So, if you hire them and they stay three months or six months they get a cash bonus of $300 or $500, Figure that into their hourly wages so you’re not overpaying buy just delaying
  

And finally get everyone in the building to follow your lead that the center is closer to the moon than it is to hell.