MY FIRST STRIKE!
MY FIRST STRIKE was up the alley, Saturday-night. This is a game about as American as you can get; instant social acceptance if you play well and by the rules. Being a foreigner I didn't know them. I let go the ball and it careened down on those densely-packed pins - they didn't know what hit 'em! "Strike!" - someone said, and I remember thinking I'd won, but then the scattered bodies were cleared away and a whole new bunch stood in their place. I never could do it again. I tried a totally different ballgame.
Baseball is maybe more American than Bowling. Everybody loves a winner. Big rewards if you're good. I wasn't! I struck-out and missed. Three times that tiny projectile whistled past me. I didn't even make first-base and the whole team was wiped-out. Its not Cricket that's for sure!
_from the series: A Brief US History, 1985 [18 non-digital, single-exposure, performed photomontages]
