Do you remember?

[Randall Harville]

I've been bowling a long time. Since 1967. Do you remember keeping your own bowling score? Do you remember when you lost a game by one pin and the team captains would look over the scoring sheet to check for mathematical errors? Do you remember when you had three open frames and you ask the scorekeeper to give you a "line or fence"? Do you remember bowling in a bowling alley and not a bowling bowling or recreation center? Do you remember a bowling alley that did not have an overhead projection screen to see your scores? Do you remember bowling with only one bowling ball? Do you remember when your bowling alley closed down every two years in the summer to have the lanes resurfaced and the bowling alley would smell like sawdust for two more weeks? Do you remember bowling with a rubber bowling ball? Do you remember practicing for under $1.00 per game? Do you remember when church leagues paid $4 per week and competitive leagues paid $8 per week to bowl? Do you remember pot games when you bowled 230-240 and had a chance to win $100 for a $5 investment? Do you remember pot games when one game was bowled over four lanes? Do you remember bowling a 260 game or a 700 series and your name was put up over the lanes until someone beat your score. Do remember when you bowled a 260 game or a 700 series and your scores were announced by the control desk operator? Do you remember when your league standing sheet was printed on a hand cranked ditto copier machine and the awful smell after freshly being printed? Do you remember when a bowling alley was full of smoke that you could cut with a knife and when you left the bowling alley, your hair and clothes would smell like smoke for days? Do you remember when you bowled a high score, TNBA members would get a Winston-Salem windbreaker jacket? Do you remember when a bowling league filled the house at 630 and 930p.m. with five person teams? Do you remember when the high average bowler in yourarea had a 210 composite average? Do you remember surface ball returns? Do you remember when one lane courtesy was really one one courtesy? Do you remember when someone called you at the bowling alley, your name was announced to let you know the you had a phone call? Do you remember when you had a see saw to clean the oil off of your one bowling ball? Do you remember when you could not afford a bowling bag for your bowling ball, you used a see saw as your bowling bag? Do you remember when you could not afford bowling shoes, you would steal a pair of rental shoes, cover up the number of the size on the back and spray paint them black? Do you remember when a bowling game was called a "line"? Do you remember when your bowling ball was drilled with a conventional grip (down to the second knuckle)? Do you remember when your bowling ball was drilled over the label and there was no exotic drilling patterns? Do you remember when bowling balls had more than 4 ounces of top weight and your pro shop owner had to drill a hole in the bottom of your finger holes to get your bowling ball under 3 ounces of top weight? Remember when all bowling shoes had only one sliding sole and heel and not replaceable? League secretaries, do you remember when had to manually keep a record of all team and individual scores in a three ring binder notebook (I was the junior league secretary at age 13)? God has blessed me with a very good memory of the things that I have experienced over 42 of almost 49 years. Despite everything that I have experienced in this industry over the years, I love this game. Wild horses could not drag me out of a bowling alley, bowling or recreation center. Just a couple of observations for you to think about during your wonderful journey down bowling memory lane.

[Wayne Gibson]

The answer to most of your questions is , yes. Sorry not gonna type yes and no to everything I remember. :) I also remember keeping score for tournaments and pot games for money. As a junior that was good money. Remember if an honor score was shot the next day the association would come out and check the lanes. Remember that a lot of people had thier name and where they were from hand painted on the bowling bag. There are lots of things I remember , good and bad. Not gonna go into the bad just yet tho.

[Martin "BLUFLAME" Seay]

I love listening to "old heads" talk about back in the day. This is what passing on tradition is about. I could sit for hours just listening to older people talk about their experiences. I was truly blessed to start off in a bowling alley that was really primative. wood, lanes always breaking down, scorers didn't work half the time. We should get a thread going about bowling memories. Mr. Harville I hope to experience let alone be able to remember as much as you. lol

[F.O.X]

you should haved named this "throwback bowling", instead of "do you remember". funny how time flies when you're having "fun".

[barry]

Yep. I remember all of this. Those were the days. I can remember when "blue dots" and yellow dots were drilled leverage and hooked off the twigs. Hell, who knew what the 4th arrow was then. I thought it was decoration. No one cared about handicap then. It was there but wasnt so helpful and obvious.

[Ken Burwell]

Wow, talk about memories.... I remember the yellow or white wax pencils and the celophane score sheets that had to be torn off at the desk. If you shot big, you wanted to keep the sheet. I remeber the large clipbords that we keep scores on for tournaments and the bowlers would give you a tip at the end of the sets. I am not that old, however, I have been in a bowling alley since I was about 4. Manhattan Rubber, Black beauty, bowling balls. When your double bag didn't have wheels. If you shot 299 the house would give you the pin you left. Wow, those were the days.

[Sean "2SMOOTH"]

I remember when back in day every patch for bowling you got. You would bugg your mother to sew it on your bowling shirt. patches up and down your sleeves all over the back and maybe one on the front. And if you were really hot you had to have a pair of white "Linds Classic" bowling shoes they were like the Air-Force Ones of Bowling. I've been bowling since I was 7. I'll be 37 come July. In the sport of bowling I have seen alot.

[Chase]

I tell you what... I certainly do remember when I was little, and my father (Charles "Chuck" Blair) bowled...and he was a 210 bowler; looking to be one of the first black bowlers to go pro, and a 210 average back then was very, very high. It's so crazy that now bowlers actually average in the 240s and even 250s...