May 28, 2020
Vol. 21, No. 2
In This Issue FOUR SEASONS
Four Seasons, by Kevin Box, in real life is located in front of the Center for Transformative Learning on the UCO campus, but this week is hidden somewhere in our paper. Email contest@edmondpaper.com with the correct location to be entered in the weekly drawing. For more information, see page 4.
Young man’s donations save lives See Page 7
Like to bowl? Build your own lane By Kacee Van Horn When COVID-19 closed the bowling lanes, Edmond teen Eric Jones knew he would have to be innovative. A nationally competitive bowler, Eric needed to practice at least two hours a day to be ready for the Teen Masters Tournament in August. Eric won his division at the tournament last year and knew daily training was essential if he wanted a repeat. He and his dad, Heath Jones, put their heads together and came up with a plan: build a bowling lane in the back yard. What seemed like a daunting task turned out to be just the challenge the father-son duo needed during quarantine. “We really didn’t do any research,” Jones, Eric’s father, said. “Eric had seen a video of a bowler who had done this, so we just dove in and built it through trial and error. It was also a great way to spend time together and good for me as a father. I got to teach Eric how to use a skill saw, jigsaw, drill and other tools.” Jones, now a music professor at Oklahoma Christian University, was an engineering major for two years, giving him an edge when it came to designing and building the lane. “We bought chipboard for the base and used cinderblocks underneath. Nice, thick plywood coated with three coats of polyurethane is on top,” shared Jones. “We also needed oil for the surface, and we’ve discovered Pam cooking spray works great.” “Within a week, Eric was bowling and I was setting pins,” continued Jones. “After a couple of days my back got sore, so we added a pin resetting system.” Using regulation pins purchased on eBay, plywood and some string, Eric and his dad created a pulley system to reset the pins. “We’ve now replaced the strings with cables,” notes Jones. “Eric is really good at math so he came up with the numbers, weight distribution, length of cables, and the distance and layout of the pins. The whole project was finished in three weeks.” continued on Page 3
FRIDAY, May 29
Thunderstorms High 77° Low 63°
SATURDAY, May 30
Scattered Thunderstorms High 79° Low 62°
SUNDAY, May 31
Scattered Thunderstorms High 80° Low 63°
Eric Jones takes aim at the bowling pins in his back yard bowling alley.
PHOTOS PROVIDED