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TRISHA MURPHY/Palatka Daily News. In their 90s, Jim Britton, left, and Ruth Vickers prove you are never too old to have fun. The friends bowl with Funtimers Senior bowling league at Putnam Lanes in Palatka, Britton with the Oddballs team, while Vickers is with the We R Tryin’ group.
They may not always have the perfect game or the correct body language when aiming for a strike or spare, but two local seniors always make an effort to stay out of the gutters.
Palatka resident Ruth Vickers, 92, and East Palatka resident Jim Britton, 91, have been bowlers from early ages.
“In 1949, when I went into the Army at age 18, they had bowling lanes at Fort Jackson in South Carolina,” Britton said.
Vickers said she started bowling when she was about 16 or 17 with a group of her high school friends.
“In the late 1940s, women did not go to bowling alleys,” she said, smiling. “The mothers said it wasn’t a place for teenage girls, so my mother went with us. The proprietor put us in our own private space there.”
Vickers and Britton are still bowling today, doing so with the Funtimers Senior bowling league at Putnam Lanes, 3834 Reid St. in Palatka. Britton plays with the Oddballs team while Vickers is with the We R Tryin’ group.
Britton said he joined the league when he retired in 1989 after 32 years of service as a substation electrician for Florida Power & Light.
“I’ve been bowling off and on since then,” he said.
Vickers said when she first moved from Jacksonville to Palatka in 1987, she heard there was a bowling league. So she decided to check it out.
“I have been bowling all of my life,” she said. “I went to the bowling alley and got on a league but then hurt my leg. So I took a break for maybe a year and a half.”
During that break, Vickers had to take care of her ill husband, Aaron G. Vickers, who died in January 2009 at the age of 85.
You meet a lot of good people while bowling, Britton said, and besides that, “It’s good exercise.”
Britton is not sure how many others in the local league are in their 90s, but it doesn’t matter. The people, their company and the friends he’s made keep him going back.
Britton’s wife passed away in 2009.
“I lead a very quiet life,” he said. “When I retired, I took up bicycling for about 4 or 5 years. I also did a 100 mile distance bike ride in 1989 when I was 57. With the Bicycle Club in Palatka I rode across Chattanooga, Tenn., and other parts of the country.”
Besides that Britton has a regular exercise routine he does daily, including riding a stationary bike for 45 minutes and working with four and six pound weights. He also does a little handy work around his house and enjoys playing with his dog and taking him for a walk.
“I clean the house in the morning, eat lunch and ride my bike and then I watch westerns and exercise and all that stuff,” he said. “I like to watch old John Wayne movies way back when the Duke was 18 or 19.”
Vickers plans to keep bowling as long as she feels good and enjoys it, although she admitted to taking a fall at church recently and had to go to rehab to regain her strength.
“I’m a little scared in my head about my legs, but I’m working on that and I hope to get over it,” she said.
Both Vickers and Britton are veterans.
Britton was in the Army for more than three years during the Korean Conflict, while Vickers joined the U.S. Navy in March 1953, where she stayed for almost a year and a half until she got married.
Vickers said it’s the friends she has made bowling, including Britton, that makes the outing special for her.
“It’s a family-type atmosphere,” she said. “We have a lot of fun and I can get out and be with people. We also celebrate birthdays and someone brings a cake. We have functions at the end of the season and sometimes we go out to eat and relax after the games.”
Vickers said she does take the summer off from bowling, but she has other activities, too, to keep her busy.
“Mostly my church, St. James United Methodist, is big in my life,” she said. “I do enjoy crafts and painting although I don’t do them very much anymore.”
At one time, Vickers worked as an insurance agent with Travelers Insurance in Jacksonville and then George Bush Insurance locally. She has three children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren with another one on the way in November.
Britton has two stepchildren and one granddaughter.
Vickers was born Oct. 28, 1930 and Britton’s birth date is Dec. 12, 1931.
Vickers said in her earlier years, her highest bowling average was around 160 and now it’s 98, but she is okay with that.
I did pick up what they call the double pinochle,” she said, laughing. “That’s four pens you leave after the first throw. And then one time the pens split with two on each side and I picked it up. That was my biggest accomplishment in bowling although my highest game one year was a 264 and another year a 267.”
Britton hopes to be able to bowl a few more years.
“Before my stroke in 2016, my average was about 170 and now it’s 140,” he said. “I didn’t know after that if I would be able to bowl again or not. I’m down to a 10 pound ball and I’m still able to throw it. I say as long as you can get up and go, stay busy.”
Vickers doesn’t mind if she can’t keep up with the best of them when bowling.
“I enjoy the people and bowling,” she said, laughing. “It’s something everybody can do and you don’t have to be really good at it, you can just enjoy it. It’s nice to be good, but you can still enjoy it even if you are not a great bowler.”
