Bowling Alley in Howard

[Diane Amberg]

Because of some of the other threads that are so active now talking about the down fall of so many of the little towns, does anyone know why these places closed?  lowered interest? loss of population? or what? Did anyone try to save them or was their loss just accepted?

[larryJ]

I don't remember the bowling alley.  I do remember shooting pool with Johnny Cooley and I think the pool hall was close to the dry cleaning shop run by my aunt and uncle.  But, then again, memories fade over the years.

Larryj

[W. Gray]

Maybe Frank can help out, but I remember going into a pool hall with my Uncle Johnnie Miller that was on Adams Street across from the phone company in one of those two buildings that are now part of the Benson Museum.

I also recall going into a pool hall with my granddad on South Wabash about where the flea market is now.

[frawin]

The only two pool halls I remember is the one on the East side just south of the First national Bank, it is the oldest one, and was there in the late 40s . There was another one, for a short time, on the West side of the street, I believe it was where the  Library is now.

[Diane Amberg]

But why did they close?

[Ms Bear]

And when?

[W. Gray]

I am thinking pin boys hand reset the pins one at a time on these alleys--or maybe customers had to reset their own.

It is done electrically and automatically today without human interaction.

I can recall when it was done semi-automatically. A pin boy jumped upon a dividing wall between the alleys to get out of the way when the ball came flying down the alley. He then jumped back down and then put all the pins in a machine contraption that was pulled from above down to about knee level. He lowered the machine by hand to the alley floor releasing a lever setting down all ten pins at once in their proper place. The machine was then manually raised out of the way and he jumped back on the dividing wall.

In school, I wanted to be a pin boy to make some money but so did every other male kid around. I had to settle for working in a grocery store beginning as a pop bottle sorter (for returns) and bagger at $1 per hour, which actually turned out to be higher than usual wage.

[W. Gray]

I think my aunt was bowling in Sedan as late as 1990.

I dont know where their alley was located.

[larryJ]

I was a pin boy in another town in another state when I was in high school.  I well remember jumping up on the wall and then jumping down to reset the pins.  It got a little scary sometimes because pins would go flying everywhere.  I never got hit by one, but you sure had to pay attention.  Then there were the arguments from the bowlers when they felt you reset their second shot incorrectly.
It was hard to convince them that the rack came down on the pins left standing and that was that.  Sometimes though, the rack would knock over a pin and you had to remember where it was at originally.  I think that was a very temporary job or maybe I was covering for somebody else,  I don't know. 

Larryj

[W. Gray]

Larry J,

As I recall watching the pinboys, it seemed that the pin resetting work was physically demanding amplified by having to continually jump up and down on that wall. And the heavy ball had to be returned also.

The automatic pin setters came out in 1946 or thereabouts and I think by the beginning of the 60s the pin boys were essentially eliminated at least in the KC area. It could have been earlier, though.

Maybe you lost your job to automation?