Goose and Guns

By Elaine Johnson

The Sister Bay Bowl was altogether different years ago. You wouldn’t even think it’s the same place. Earl’s place, where the bowling alley is, was a dance hall. Where the dining area is now was living quarters and the bar ran along the dance hall. It was a pretty wild place. We had turkey shoots and goose shoots, so you’d go to those. They would put a funnel over the turkey and put him behind a log so the only thing that really stuck up was its head, to see who could shoot them. If nobody shot the thing they’d buy a new goose or they’d buy the turkey. A man came in after he had a few drinks. He had a goose in a burlap bag. He was telling everyone how he went to this goose shoot. He got this goose first prize, hit the target.

They said, “Oh, you never got that goose.”

“Yes,” he said, “I got a goose in here.” So he reached down in that bag and pulled out this goose and let her go. That goose was loose, heh, flew one end to the other and Earl was running with a cue