A new bowling season recently started at Southgate Lanes, Bluffton, and there's two very familiar bowlers among the many men and women who study the pins each week.

Jim Baumgartner, 83, starting bowling at Southgate Lanes, Bluffton, in 1960. The year it opened. He's still bowling there.

Bob Badertscher, who says he's a couple months younger than Jim, started bowling at Southgate Lanes the next season, in 1961. And he's still bowling there.

John Dailey and Derek Dukes of Southgate figured that Jim has bowled about 5,088 games. That's figuring 53 years with 32 weeks of bowling each year, times three games a week.

Using that formula, Bob, one year behind Jim, should be near his 4,992th game.

Both men have bowled in the Sportmen's League ever since they started bowling. "The first ball I ever bought, your grandfather sold me for $10," he told John.

John's grandfather, Dwight Dailey, and John's father, Jim, operated Southgate Lanes when Bob started bowling. The Dailey's purchased the bowling alley the second year it was in operation, which was the year Bob started bowling.

Southgate Lanes, now under John's ownership, is in its third generation as a family-owned Bluffton business.