Bowling Alleys and Leagues

DeAne and Chris spoke a little today about what really made Putnam's article a great one was using the example of bowling leagues in America. DeAne's story about her Great-Uncle(?) having an inscription on a bowling alley table after his death and the bowling alley being used as the place for the funeral reception was certainly interesting. Hearing her talk about bowling leagues prevalence in America is something that I can relate to as well. I'll share a few bowling stories of my own here~

Growing up, I never knew much about my great-grandparents on either side of my family. They had all passed away before any of my siblings or me were born, but the one fact that I remember learning about my mom's grandparents is that they were part of a bowling league. The only real story that I know about my great-grandma Wendt is that she bowled a 200 when she was 80 years old and get her name and picture in the Salina Journal during the 1960's. Keep in mind that this is in a small 100 person town in the middle of Kansas. When my mom told me these things about my great-grandparents I remember that I didn't really understand what a bowling league was. "People used to have bowling leagues where they would get together with neighbors and go bowling for fun," she would say. Used to have bowling leagues... This definitely rings true for Putnam's essay. People just don't go bowling like that anymore, and I guess I never used to question why that is significant or why that trend ended.

My second story is about the bowling alley in my hometown. My town of 3,000 people used to have a bowling alley. I vaguely remember it from when I was just a girl. It probably contained about five lanes, was dark and sold a lot of beer. In 2001 after the bowling alley had been closed for around four years, the bowling alley collapsed suddenly and ruined two vehicles. The brick building was around 70 years old. Although this was a complete surprise to everyone, I think that the biggest disappointment was knowing that the possibility of having a bowling alley ever again (or at least during my childhood) would be taken away. For several years after, people talked about and tried to put in another bowling alley but it never went through. The fact is, with no bowling leagues or major community connections to bowling in my town nor a voluntary association to promote a new bowling alley, there was never another bowling alley put into my town.