All 4 one and one 4 autism!

One of the more fun and wilder events I've been to is Daytime Stars and Strikes at Bowlmor Lanes in Times Square. A host of former daytime actors come out and bowl with fans while others who don't want to bowl watch and eat all the food up. It's all to raise money for autism awareness, and so no matter what happens or who shows up or who doesn't or who hangs around or who doesn't, it's a blast.

I was on lane 20 with two other "stragglers" who hadn't signed up with someone else. There was Jackie, a "One Life to Live" fan who knew "Guiding Light" actors who had been on her show -- like event co-host Jerry ver Dorn and Kim Zimmer -- and Rosalyn, who at least won the autographed "Days of Our Lives" script in the silent auction. So we all had different soap likes, but we got along very well very quickly.

We excitedly welcomed our celeb -- Sonia Satra, who played Lucy Cooper on "Guiding Light" in the '90s. She was so lovely and spirited, we were hugging from the get-go. Our next-door lane neighbor was Bob Woods (Bo Buchanan on "OLTL") and he spent a lot of time chatting and joking with us. In the lane next to him, a microcosm of the mid-'80s in my life -- Michael O'Leary and Grant Aleksander (Rick Bauer and Phillip Spaulding from "GL.") I was doing a little jig in my uncomfortable and unfashionable bowling shoes. It wasn't long before I was in a Musketeer sandwich getting my picture taken. I told them they seemed ageless; Grant quipped that they needed to buy me some new glasses.

What #teamsonja lacked in actual bowling skill, we made up for in enthusiasm. Whoever wasn't otherwise occupied cheered on the others. We invented the "high four" for when someone knocked down four pins -- using four fingers, of course. That led to the high "nine" and the troublesome high "seven" ('cause there are a couple different ways for someone to produce seven fingers.)

Whenever it was my turn to go, it seemed like it was Bob Woods' turn to as well. The lanes seem so much slimmer at Bowlmor, it kinda seemed like we were all bowling together. Anyway, there was always a photographer or a fellow actor or someone requiring his attention, which then required mine because they were often standing in my lane at the time. But the most distracting? At one point, he leaned back and stuck out his belly like an armchair quarterback on a lazy Sunday. Then I really couldn't concentrate from giggling too much.

I was doing all right, bowling-wise, I found the pocket but I kept not getting that last pin to fall down. My usual colorful phraseology was replaced with exclamations of "bugger," but Sonia and my team were very supportive and Bob told me that I was playing quite well. Then we made some sort of bet for his Daytime Emmy that I still can't recall, other than the fact that I won the bet and the man owes me an Emmy. (In all fairness, he later couldn't remember what the actual bet was either.)

Jackie kept disappearing during our game, when it wasn't her turn, she would run around to other lanes and get selfies with the other actors. She would come back with pictures of her with Kim Zimmer and Jerry ver Dorn and Grant Aleksander (whose scoring line garnered a lot of jokes since it read "Gant.") I wanted pictures too, but I was enjoying the laughter and hugs so I didn't really leave the lane. Besides everyone loves Sonia, so we had lots of visitors!

Just as she was leaving, I caught a glimpse of Elvera Roussel, who played Hope on "GL" kinda before my era. The last time I attended the event, I bought a picture of hers and she graciously autographed it. She was under the weather, but told me of a very interesting documentary she's a part of for people raised in Cambodia. She said to look for it in the next year. I certainly will.

Event co-host Liz Keifer, who I've seen in almost every soap over the years, came to visit and I was telling her about how I have clips of her on my Sean and Tiffany YouTube channel. She exclaimed, "the crazy nun!" Talk about your thankless roles, Camellia in 1986-'87 has got to be one of those. Liz said she just didn't know what she was supposed to do with the character, because the show didn't really know either. They didn't give her a lot to work with, so when "GL" called for her to take over Blake Spaulding, she decided she was going to do the character her way and made no bones about it. That obviously worked out in favor, she really did make Blake her own.

Was hoping to see some of Michael O'Leary being the character we all suspect he is, and when I was taking a picture of him with Liz, he turned it on full blast. He kept moving them in closer and closer until I couldn't see anything in the viewfinder. Then there was this mad grabbing of fans and actors and we all wound up in a funny group picture. At which time, I quipped something about how since I dug into Liz's acting closet, I had to do it for Michael -- bringing up the 1981 action cheesefest "Lovely but Deadly," which seemed to be on cable all the time when Michael started hitting it big on "GL." That made him laugh pretty heartily.

Jerry came over at one point, and since I had used my big story on him last time -- regaling him with the tale and picture from when I first met him back in 1986 -- I was much more anxious to see his reunion with a woman named Susan. As we were stragglers, we befriended her when she sat behind our lane for the event. She was in "The Music Man" in school with Jerry back in the late '60s and played his daughter in the show. It was so sweet to see them meet again.

Mostly it was just hanging with Sonia and Bob. Bob told us when Sonia was "One Life to Live," he always wanted to have more scenes with her. And when her character Barbara Graham went to the dark side, he wanted his Bo Buchanan to set her free. I took complete credit when Sonia threw a strike in her final frame, 'cause I called it. And when Bob was bowling in the 10th, I was heckling him so he wouldn't finish with a higher score than my 77. He didn't. Michael came back to razz Sonia for beating her score, but she said mine topped his and I added that since she's my teammate technically she beat him too. (I know faulty logic, but you had to be there.)

Then it got really funny and really silly as none of us could bowl with Bob making us laugh. At one point, Bob and Sonia were asked to pose for a photo with the bowling balls and that led to an unending series of "Bob has orange balls" taunts, for his bowling ball did match his shirt. #orangeballs. Won't soon forget that.

After our game finished, then I went to find Beth Chamberlin, who I always thought did such a masterful job of replacing an Emmy-winning actress who was a huge fan favorite. She too made Beth her own. And lordy, she looks like she hadn't aged since the show went off the air! Sure, she's a fitness trainer, but look at least a year older, won't ya?

Actually, I had a really nice conversation with her about the difference between soaps now and then. And how soap magazines with spoilers and now social media with people typing up caustic phrases without really paying attention to what's going on on screen have changed things so much. Soaps used to be an event, if you didn't see it when it aired, you just never did. Nowadays, if you miss it, you can catch the whole thing later online or even on someone's YouTube channel.

Also talked with Bob Woods about being the proverbial bridesmaid to Tony Geary (except the one time when he won the Emmy that he owes me). He told us about how at that first one, Tony's plan was to get good and snockered at the event. But Bob said he told Tony he would win, and that he should "be there" for that moment. When Bob won the following year, the show wasn't broadcast on national television, so he wouldn't have gotten to see it if an acquaintance at a local Philly station hadn't filmed it. And the person who presented him with the statue? The previous year's outstanding lead actress, co-star Robin Strasser.

Didn't win anything at the auctions or the raffle, but I didn't leave empty-handed either. Besides the cool gift bag, I wanted something that was part of one of the live auctions, a t-shirt for "Quiet on the Set," the play that one of my all-time favorites Terrell Anthony (Rusty, "GL") created featuring a number of different daytimers. Robert Newman had contributed a T-shirt for the event, which he signed. I wanted that! And though my bid wasn't the highest, I did convince the lovely lady who did win to sell it to me afterward.

People I saw in passing: Ron Raines (Alan Spaulding on "GL" as well as a Broadway legend). If I didn't run after him, I wouldn't have gotten my rockin' picture, because he seemed to take off before the bowling started. Lisa Brown and Martha Byrne (mother and daughter on "As the World Turns") were on the lanes to the other side of us, but other than showing Lisa where she was bowling and saying "hi," I didn't get to spend time with them.

Last time, I got a lot of entertainment out of hanging with Sean Ringgold, a big teddy bear of a fellow who played Shaun on "OLTL." We passed each other outside the restrooms. Not exactly quality time, but his smile is worth its weight in gold.

Oh, and I saw what I thought was the back of Jay Hammer's head when I was signing in. It probably was, since I later saw a photo of him with the other actors on the Daytime Stars and Stripes Facebook page. I soooooo wanted to show him the "Where's our baby?" that he wrote for me after my sister spotted him in her video store and sent him across the street to my newspaper back in 1990.

And the capper. As I left, Kim Zimmer hopped in the elevator. I said she was lucky no one else was in there or I would have made her stop for a picture. (Since I had taken a couple with her in the mid-'80s, I didn't feel the need to press the issue.) I said I enjoyed her work for many years on "GL" and she thanked me. The doors opened and she went her way and off I went to work. End of a fun-filled day at #webowl4autism.