Rolling Stones

It’s been played around the World for more than 7,000 years bringing together fans of all races and ethnicities. It is Bocce, a ball sport with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire. Developed into its present form in Italy it is played around Europe and in overseas areas that have received Italian migrants, including Australia, North America and South America. The sport is also very popular in Slovenia and in Southern France.

Throwing balls toward a target is the oldest game known to mankind. As early as 5000 B.C. the Egyptians played a form of Bocce with polished rocks. While Bocce today looks quite different from its early predecessors, Bocce has the common objective of trying to come as close to a fixed target, called a pallino, as possible. Traditionally played on a ”court” approximately 12 feet wide by 60 feet long the playing surface may be stone dust, natural soil, clay, grass or an artificial surface. Bocce balls are made of metal or various kinds of hard plastic.  

From the early Greek physician Hippocrates to the great Italian Renaissance man Galileo, the early participants of Bocce believed that the game’s athleticism and spirit of competition rejuvenated the body. The sport first came to America in the English version called “Bowls” from the French boule meaning ball. In accord with how the game was played in Britain, American players threw the ball not on stone dust but on close cropped grass, which some say is the origin of the modern lawn. One early American playing field was Bowling Green at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City and George Washington is said to have built a court at Mount Vernon, in the 1780s. The arrival of Italian immigrants at the turn of the 20^th century helped Bocce to flourish in the United States.

The history of Bocce prompted my surprise at recently passing the bulletin board outside of the volunteer fire company in Honey Brook, Northern Chester County, PA, near Morgantown announcing a Bocce Tournament.  Honeybrook, near Lancaster County, is home to many farms primarily owned by the Amish.  I wondered what Bocce was doing out there. According to a Township spokesman the local population has grown and become much more diverse over the past ten years as some Russian families have become residents joining Italians and other Bocce enthusiasts. This just goes to show that Bocce need not be sought out only in urban areas with significant Italian populations. It is everywhere.  Given the camaraderie of Bocce competition there may sometime come a day when, all around the world, we can roll balls at a designated target instead of hurling rocks at each other.