I have nothing constructive or useful here…just a thought.
I went bowling with some friends last night. We had fun, but I started feeling nostalgic. As much as I love Southern California, I miss one thing. I grew up in the Boston area, and bowling for me growing up was Candlepin Bowling .
Boy do I miss that! Our fun saturday morning thing to do was to go down to Pilgrim Lanes and do a couple of strings of bowling. Regular tenpin is fun and all, but nothing compared to the skill needed for candlepin. Consider that a perfect 300 game has never been achieved. The highest score on record is 245.
Anybody else have any thoughts on this? experiences?
Candlepin is neat - we used to go as undergrads in Maine. A friend and I once skipped class because we wanted to go so badly. Had a great time too.
I doubt that it exists around here, though there is a regular bowling alley on campus.
Other than to suggest that the midi file is er, uh, distracting from your cite, I would suggest that you wussie bowlers from down East ought to check into duckpin bowling. A truly heroic sport for those of us brought up in the Mid-Atlantic States.
I’ve seen nothing in PA when I lived there, or of course down here in GA. I’ve toyed with the idea of opening my own alley, looking at the costs involved. Unfortunately it seems prohibitively high (I’d have to believe people would want to flock to play it though, especially families) to do, so I will have to settle for my next vacation to Maine. I was in a league while I grew up there and loved it thoroughly.
I will also have to include a trip to Funspot and Funtown next time up there and get my retro geek on (both big places in my adolescence).
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Should we start up another thread on ‘who misses fried dough’ or continue that here as well? I worked for a summer on Hampto Beach at Jenkin’s Candy Shop (now moved to Exeter) as a taffy puller. They had just set up a fried dough shop as well. Between there, the town fairs, and Funtown, I got it just often enough to love it as well.
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There is a candlepin bowling alley in Westwood, MA. I was just up there visiting my uncle, and we went to the place. I had never heard of candlepin bowling before, so it was a new one on me.
Sigh…I used to live right across the border from a scad of them, and I never got a chance to play that version. I’ve bowled duckpins a few times, I even have a set of ducks that me and my friends used to play with, but candlepins just seems more exciting.
The farthest south I’ve heard of duckpin bowling was in the Montour Lanes in Montoursville, PA (near Williamsport). When I was growing up near there, the Lanes used to have “duckpin nights.” I doubt they still have them though. It’s too bad, I would have liked to try it sometime.
I’m surprised duckpin or candlepin hasn’t found a foothold up here in upstate New York, seeing as how bowling is about the only viable winter recreation if you don’t like freezing to death outside.
Mmm…Candlepin. I live close enough to home still that I can play it pretty much whenever I want (I’m never more than a 3 hour ride from an alley), but the thing I really miss is watching my saturday morning “Candlepin Stars and Strikes” on tv. Would any of you believe that channel 5’s Candlepin show was the HIGHEST RATED saturday morning show in the Boston market for something like 40 years?
I’ve been candlepin bowling once, with a big group of kids from a summer program at MIT, and I adored it. Now I’m back home in southern CA wondering if there’s anywhere in this part of the states that has it. I’m way better at candlepin than I am at normal bowling.
Sure, I’d believe it, Flymaster. Lots of bowling shows back east. My mom even kept score for the preliminary rounds a few times to earn a few extra bucks.
And, Crinklebat, as far as I know, there’s a candlepin bowling alley (10 lanes) in Tracy, CA. Last I heard, however, is that the machines were in disrepair, so you might look further to see if they are running. Other than that, the sport is confined to the eastern seaboard and the Canadian maritimes, save any private alleys in some rich #@$%'s basement…
I should also add that the reason that smallball bowling hasn’t made a bigger bang over the years is because of money-minded companies such as AMF and Brunswick. Brunswick used to make equipment for many bowling games such as Duckpin, Rubberband duckpin, Fivepin, Candlepin, as well as standard Tenpin bowling. However, to offer such variety is a drain on profits, and, to get more bang out of their already accomodating dollar, AMF led the way in turning on the U.S. to tenpin bowling. Small-time companies such as Sherman (duckpin) and Bowl-Mor (candlepin) held fast for as long as they could until the late 1960’s. As a result, most machinery that is used today is well over 40 years old and basically held together with serendipity and parts from auto supply stores. I do believe, however, that candlepin machines are being manufactured once more, although I’ve forgotten any details to support this fact. Duckpins, unfortunately, are only available nowadays with a pinsetter that involves the pins being attached to 6mm cord to the resetting machine, a slap in the face to purists. Anyone who wishes the real thing must wait for an existing house to close down and sell their machines, which are wearing rapidly.
Candlepin stars and strikes is still on TV… WNDS Saturday and Sunday at 11 or 12 … at least it was last year when I still had cable… I only get one channel now here in hell.
When I was a kid we had lanes down the street that were candlepin and tenpin. I favored tenpin because my family all bowled tenpin and taught us kids that candlepin was training for the “real” bowling of tenpin. I have since grown up and learned candlepin is full of it’s own fun and unique challenges. The two are only alike in that they both involve lanes/oins/balls!
We also played duckpin somewhere in the New Bedford, MA area… we had all three kinds of balls at home. I think the duckpin placed closed though because we stopped going and my folks used the balls as tarp weights.
Oddly enough I now live quite near Pilgrim Lanes and could make the trip to Leda Lanes easily… I really want to attend a taping!