Throughout history, Bocce has been spread mostly by conquering soldiers. The Greeks took it over from the Egyptians during times of constant battling between them. Then the Romans borrowed it from the Greeks. During the Punic wars the Roman soldiers are said to have played in-between battles. As the armies moved through Europe the survivors sitting in fear on neighboring hilltops interpreted the game and made their own rules. The British play Bowles, the French play Boules and the Italians play Bocce. George Washington played Bowles and in fact had a grass court at Mt Vernon. Sir Francis Drake when warned of the approach of the Spanish Armada is believed to have been tossing bowles. Responding to the messenger, “first we finish the game, then we defeat the Armada.” Drake was so cool. What they leave out in this story is that the tide was low, and the boats were all beached with no chance of moving for several hours. Bocce has met incredible opposition over the years and has prevailed. Once thought to be a cure for rheumatism, banned by the Catholic Church, and also forbidden by Kings because it took soldiers away from their archery and combat training. Moving right along…

In mid September two captains from the 1-110th infantry battalion of the US Army contacted me about the feasibility of shipping a bocce court to Iraq. We will be building this web page at the same time as the troops are building their court.

Boccemon agreed to donate five cubic yards of product but wanted them to figure out the freight. For a month we investigated various military channels to see if they might help. Meanwhile I contacted John Ross, the president of the United States Bocce Federation, and he agreed to help on another front. The Combat Bocce Club was formed. While standing in a long line at the post office I was looking at the Flat Rate packaging and had time to calculate the box volume. I figured it would take about 100 boxes to package one cubic yard. Then realized we could ship this yard - one box at a time to Iraq cheaper than I could send it in bulk to Florida.

The Bellingham Bay Bocce Club circulated a letter to the community asking for their help in paying the postage. Our goal was to ship 25 boxes each day until 5 yards were gone.

On November 3rd we shipped 25 boxes of Rain Country blend (adjusted for the climate). Our friends Kim and Marisa took over filling out the custom forms so I only had to sign and date them at the Post Office. Copies Now printed up the address labels which saved us more hours. We recycled hundreds of plastic shopping bags for use as liners from the local Food Co-op. Friday, November 4th we were short of boxes so we were only able to fill and ship 16. The following week, Bocce brother Ron hit up three Post Offices in adjacent counties and got a bunch. That evening instead of gathering for the regular Wednesday Bocce Night we met at Boccemon’s warehouse and packed up about 180 boxes. Later we heard from the troops that they had received the sets of bocce balls and the Playaboule banner sent 7 days earlier.

Monday we had plenty so we mailed 46 boxes. It took an hour and a half to stamp the 6-paged customs form but both the postal workers and customers were typically very patient.

I shipped every day at 2PM from the Prospect Street Post Office Monday through Friday until they were all gone.

We will be posting when they are received so you can follow your box. Thanks to all the folks who have contributed more than freight. The box list is set up as an Excel spreadsheet. It is safe to open. Look at the tabs at the bottom of the sheet for your range of box numbers.

As the troops wait for the modified Rain Country Blend they continue work on the court. Since there is no available gravel within 1000 miles of them the clay will have to make due. The environment is arid enough that they should get a good hard base after driving the Hummers over it for a while. Here they are dumping “clay” into the court which will take days to work

November 18th, while running through my checklist I went into Birch Equipmentwhere the owner, Sarah Rothenbuhler, enquired about the progress of our project. I told her 100 pledges would wrap it up. Four hours later, while in the post office mailing the day's shipment, Sarah called and advised me that she and her employees had scraped together all 100 pledges. This generous contribution allowed me to focus on shipping the remaining boxes in order to be finished mailing by November 22nd. All was completed prior to Thanksgiving. “Kudos” to every contributor.