By Jim Hunt for the News and Journal
Of all the sports that are played in the United States, one of the longest lasting is the sport of
bowling. While some might think that bowling was a sport enjoyed by one’s grandparents,
there is still a good bit of interest and parking lots are filled in many bowling alleys across the
country. I can remember going to Compton Lanes and Jewel City Bowling on several occasions
in my youth, but I never became a devotee of the game. It might have been the complicated
scoring that seemed to be a variation of algebra and hieroglyphs. My uncle was a prolific bowler
and bowled in a couple of leagues and I can always remember the shiny bowling ball that he
would proudly show off. We would go to the bowling lanes to watch him on a few occasions,
and he had the colorful bowling shirt, along with his own bowling shoes. The sound of the ball
hitting the pins still rings in my ears.
We recently went to the new “Alley 304”, in the old Compton Bowling Lanes building for a
birthday party for my granddaughter, Sadie. I had seen the advertisements for this new bowling
facility in the paper and online and I would note that there were a lot of cars in the parking lot
when I would drive down old Bridgeport Hill. As we walked in around 5:00PM, there were only
a few people there and we got some shoes and went over to the area where they had set up for
the birthday party. With a four-year-old and a mixture of other ages, I wasn’t really thinking
about bowling but soon everyone got in on the action. They have a plastic ramp that the
younger kids can use to roll the balls down the alley and that allowed everyone to experience
the joy of bowling.
As I went to pick out a ball, I figured that I should get a heavier ball than the kids and opted for
a sixteen-pound ball. This quickly proved to be a mistake, and I realized that bowling requires
some strength and control of the ball and hefting a 16-pound orb was more than I had
bargained for. The scoring is much simpler than the days of my youth and modern technology
has automated this once complicated task. As I looked around the building, I could see more
and more people coming in and soon, every lane had a group of bowlers and the noise level
increased dramatically. My older granddaughter, Ali and her boyfriend, Eli, were really getting
into the game and both showed some real talent. Ali rolled three strikes in a row and Eli was
probably the best bowler in our group.
It was a fun evening, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. The birthday package included
pizza and two lanes of bowling and shoe rental and was perfect family friendly fun. The staff
was friendly and very helpful getting everyone fitted for shoes and setting up the tables. I’d
recommend “Alley 304” to anyone looking for an enjoyable evening and for more experienced
bowlers, there are leagues and tournaments.
I did realize that bowling is a sport, and your muscles might ache a little after an evening of
knocking down the pins. Both my wife and I were sore the next day and we realized that we need to do a little working out before our next venture to the lanes. If you haven’t been to
“Alley 304”, give it a try and support our local businesses!