Bowling Alley in Howard

[W. Gray]

A real estate advertisement on the web shows that an 8-lane bowling alley is for sale at $120,000 in Sedan.

The advertisement says that all equipment is in working order and ready to open, indicating a now closed facility.

[larryJ]

Well, this town was small, but bigger than Howard.  The bowling balls were set on a ramp next to the alley and rolled back.  Sometimes, the ball didn't quite make it all the way back and the bowler had to walk up and retrieve it.  The town did build a new bowling alley complete with automatic pinsetters, but I am pretty sure I was not doing pin setting anymore at that time.  I had moved on to my new job earning $.90 an hour working at a Conoco station, changing oil, grease jobs, car washes and pumping gas in my spiffy new uniform with the green cap with the Conoco logo on it.  I remember some of the farmers bringing in their pickups with a inch of mud and dirt on the floorboards (no carpeting in those days) and I had to clean all the mud out, both inside and outside their trucks.  That was in 1961-62.  The other guy working there, besides the boss, was a 70 year-old man named Harry.  Occasionally, we would get a semi-tractor from one of the local trucking companies for an oil change.  Nasty job, but it was Harry's job.  It took all day and he was absoluety filthy when it was done.  I never did that job.

Another story about Harry:  I couldn't drink the water there, too hard, so I drank a lot of colas.  Harry used to admonish me about drinking so many colas.  He would tell me they were going to rot my stomach.  One day the boss told me that a crew from Conoco was coming out to tear a hole in the parking area to fix one of the underground gas tanks.  I was going to open that morning.  The night before that was going to happen, just when Harry was leaving, he was on my case about the colas.  I told him to follow me out to the parking area and I poured a Pepsi on the ground.  The next morning, the crew came and did their thing, but left a big hole which would be patched later.  Around noon, Harry came to work, and looked at the hole, right where I had poured the Pepsi.  I thought he was going to have a stroke! 

Larryj

[W. Gray]

I usually wash my car at the 25 cent car wash each time I come to Howard.

One of the things I dont like about car washing in Howard is the amount of mud left on the stall floor that comes from the farmers and others who constantly travel the county roads. I have the same problem when I decide to take a tour of the back roads.

I cant seem to time my trips to the area just after someone cleans the floor. The outside stall is for bigger vehicles and is muddier. I learned not to use it if the other one is busy.

Apparently, when the floor is cleaned the mud is piled in the back of the facility. The little hill there got almost head high at one point. I noticed on my last trip that the hill had been reduced. Someone must have needed some dirt for a project somewhere.

One other note: when those 25 cent car washes first came out, maybe in the late 50s where I was at, it actually cost 25 cents to wash a car. Prior to the coin washes, one had to settle on a pull through wash that cost quite a bit more, I am thinking 75 cents.

[W. Gray]

Larry,

I was with an uncle and we were standing inside one of the filling stations on the east side of K-99 in Howard one nice day. It had to be sometime between 1947 and 1950.

A guy came riding into the station on one of those Vespa motor scooters from Italy. They were the rage around that time because they did not use much gasoline. The attendant went out to provide the service, and the guy asked for five cents worth of gas.

[larryJ]

Yeah, I had similar experiences.  I seem to remember gas was going for $.19 to $.22 a gallon.  When we would go "cruising," we would stop and get a dollars worth of gas.  The cars we drove got about 10 miles to the gallon.  So at, say, $.20 a gallon = five gallons = 50 miles.  Our cruising in this small town would be like driving from Wabash out to Hwy 99 and back many times a night.

My mother and I once drove to Greeley, Colorado, where she was going to summer school for a teacher's certificate.  There was a gas war going on in Denver.............price $.14 a gallon.

Larryj

[W. Gray]

There used to be a very small, perhaps, brass, "STOP" sign at Wabash and Washington in the middle of the street in the middle of the intersection.

The sign was embedded or attached to the brick and stuck up perhaps six or more inches. I cannot recall if there were also yellow stop signs on the intersection corners .

Cruisers in Howard headed north on Wabash and used this small in street sign as a pivot point making a UTurn around it driving south on Wabash to Adams, making another UTurn repeating the process. I don't recall if there was a similar in street stop sign at that intersection.

On cruising night, the sidewalks were loaded with people and parking spaces were at a premium on Wabash. I believe it was Saturday night and it was the late forties or early fifties. To my young eyes, it seemed like the cruising went on for a long time during the evening but I doubt it.

[W. Gray]

Another view of the Roberts Bowling Alley showing spectator seating and pool tables.