Thanks Bill! The shoes were bad enough but now you have totally ruined absolutely everything else about the entire bowling experience for me, too. I mean it was all out there lingering on the periphery of my consciousness already, but I could ignore it the once every 5 or 10 years that I had to for some reason. Now I can skip it altogether and never bowl again! SAVED!

Much laughter ensued. Appreciated!

I'm with (or not)the smelly shoes too. I don't even want to try to imagine where people put their fingers. How about ice-skates?

A shudder ran through my body when I read this. The shoes, the smell, the ultimate hell on earth...

Well, time to change the plans I had made to take the urchins bowling this afternoon...

Ahhh, the smell. Used to experience similar during my roller skating years. The Benbrook roller rink was the usual Friday and Saturday night hangout for 12 -15 year olds. The smell was a combination of wood dust, juvenile hormones, sweat, and dirty socks. Clothes reeked afterward. I can still conjure up the memory of that odor. Oh, but those were the days, my friend. Of course, I never used rentals, had my own skates, complete with the little fluffy pom poms. I had three sets: pink, blue and black which was often the color of my backside after a night of backward dance skating.