Bowling Lanes

In Connellsville, Pennsylvania across the street from the old Troutman building, there was a hotel called the St. James. As a youth it was inconspicuous to me and I would have never known that it was there. But as a teenager several of my friends bowled there as a group and invited me to join. When I thought of a hotel, I thought of a quiet place to stay while on vacation to sleep overnight, but a bowling alley?

I think the most unusual thing about the alley was its location. The lanes were located on the second floor. Its position in the building truly fascinated me. Who would have thought bowling alleys on the second floor? Plus it was a rare treat for me to bowl. Money was tight. My brother and sister were too young to go bowling as a family, but my parents allowed me to occasionally tag along with the church bowler friends.

The bowling alleys were older without pin-setting machines. It was necessary for the owners to employ pin boys who would gather and reset the pins at the far end of the lanes. They would retrieve your ball, then place it in the return trough where the ball would rumble back to you.

I can’t remember which night of the week we would bowl but there was a man there who scared the daylights out of the pin boys and sent them scurrying. He had huge bulging arm muscles. When he would bowl, he would hurl the ball down the lanes. The ball was air-born until halfway down the lane. It would hit the lane with a thunderous crash to begin its trip and spin on the polished boards. The torque was tremendous. When this heavy black bowling ball hit the pins with a crack, the pins would scatter in all direction. It was a dangerous situation for the pin boys. They would scatter as well, heading to opposite sides of the room to escape a possible injury from flying pins. The ball would hit the backstop with a dull, solid thump.

It was almost like a dance with the pin setter boys waltzing out of the way at the crescendo of the rumbling of music, then having to dance back to the stage and reset the pins. I was amazed at the power of the young bowler and the finesse of the youthful pin setters as they scurried to avoid injury at the opposite sides of the lanes, only to hurry back into the danger zone.