Bowling

This article appeared in The Raymond News, March 30, 1972

This article brought back a lot of good memories of the bowling alley. It was named the "The Raymond Bowl," when it was organized on March 16, 1961 by a group of eight local men. The group purchased the Raymond Community Theatre Corp. and transformed the building into a modern, air conditioned "recreation center" with eight bowling lanes and a snack bar.

Members of the group were Cecil Pitchford, Howard Rebhan, William Anderson, Fred Hantla, Henry Nail, Lester Lessman, Kenneth Smith, and Gerald Langen.

Some of my memories of the bowling alley include:

• Women's and Men's leagues were held a few nights per week, and there were enough teams to have early bowling at 7:00 p.m.and late bowling at 9:00 p.m.
• All the parking spaces on Main Street would be full and the side streets would be lined with cars and trucks (during Halloween week this allowed for many opportunities for "soaping" -- so I've been told). 
• A junior league was held on Saturday mornings. If you got a strike when the red pin was in the center (number 1) position, you won a free game of bowling.
• Hearing the pins crashing from all the way across the street.
• Listening to the jukebox and playing pinball. Spending your last quarter and then being lucky enough to "match" and win another game. 
• The snack bar.
• The black ball with the pink spots.
• Score sheets that clipped on the score tables, next to the built-in ashtrays. 
• Checking the Raymond paper each week to view the team scores and individual high scores. 

Thanks for reading this week's TBT blog. I hope you will share some of your own memories of the bowling alley in Raymond.