Duckpin Bowling
 

hey fezo...looks like it's open!!! Funny, this photo was on the front page of yesterday's The Chronicle, which I only read a couple x's a month and that's my friend (and former employer), Albert in the bucket!!!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Great to see the Lucky Strike lanes still around. I grew up playing duckpins, at the Holiday Lanes in Manchester, CT., but I played in a couple of tournaments at the Lucky Strike. I was a pretty good bowler, but not good enough to come away with any awards.
A couple of questions for the locals: does anyone remember when duckpin bowling was televised on channel 18? And, does anyone remember "rubber duckpins", with the rubber band around the middle of the pins to give them more action?
DQ

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Oooooh! I've gotta get up there. I can't think of the last time I played duck pins.

I read where there's no one in the country that even makes the equipment anymore and for the most part the only folks who open up a new place do so by grabbing everything form an old place. The good news is there's still a Canadian outfit that makes some stuff.

Man, I have got to get up there. The only duck pin places are either north of me (nearest one Connecticut) or south (Maryland)....

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

As a Baystater...I grew up playing and watching candlepin on TV and was able to continue on when I moved to W. Mass. where I think we used to play at an alley in E. Longmeadow?

And haven't played once since I moved to CT :(. So I gave ten pin a try (not willingly though) and played in a league in South Windsor and in Windsor Locks...across from the airport. I don't care for ten pin at all!!! I even had to play in a tournament when I was pregnant :(.

Well hey Fezo if you make it over to the duckpin -let me know! Don't know if I can play (I just started to be able to bend my thumbs a little today) but I'll watch!!! Maybe Don Quixote can swing down from Mass!!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

In maybe a month I'll be passing through but it will be well into the year before any chance of pulling off anything resembling a visit. I will, however, in the trip in early March be in New Hampshire long enough to maybe sneak a couple of games of candlepins in.

I like candlepins and duck pins better than regular bowling. I think it's the smaller balls and leaving the dead wood - and of course having three balls a frame. Fun stuff.

By the time I make it up you'll have thumbs again!

Were you from eastern Mass? Have relatives in and around Framingham. A couple of my brothers did the college years in Boston bit. That's always good for seven years....

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

I know about where that is.... Pretty area.

My brother got stuck out on 128 in that blizzard! Four feet of snow and traffic stopped dead. He was out there a few days keeping warm in the truck that got stopped behind him. They finally snowmobiled him out to a Howard Johnsons and let him sort it all out later. I was visiting down in Florida at the time....

You're likely moving within Connecticut aren't you? We'll amke this happen!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Whoa, do I remember that '78 storm. I was a grad student at UConn, and they kept delaying the cancellation of classes. By the time they finally canceled them, the whole state was shut down. I was living in Ellington, about 1/2 hour away, and was stranded with about 5 bucks in my pocket. I lived in the grad dorm lounge for three days until the roads were cleared, living on coffee and bologna sandwiches. I remember people skiing on route 195 to get to where they needed to go. There was snow on the ground around my house until June.
DQ

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Funny thing with that 78 storm. We had two blizzards that year. The big one was the second one. I was around for the first.

In its own wacky way that big one was a life changer for me. The woman I was visiting in Florida and I were getting to the point of actual commitment. She is a fifth generation Floridian. When I reacted to news of the storm with a "I can't believe I'm missing this!" she was looking like she figured i was a Martian. That alone didn't kill things but was an early indicator that maybe this wasn't going to work....

She's actually a pretty neat lady and ended up marrying a fellow down there with instant family he didn't much like. i don't think i could do that.

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Interesting story, Fezo. Two things: I think you're right about there being two blizzards (the first one dropped about 18-24" inches on the region), and about the second one being worse. It was also relatively late in the season.

It was also a life-changing event for me. I had been offered a one-year gig as UConn's resident director in their Mexico program. My newlywed wife of less than a year was not sure that she wanted us to go, because she had teaching commitments in CT. After that storm, she decided that a year in Mexico (in Cuernavaca, "City of Eternal Spring") wouldn't be such a bad idea, after all. We've been going to Mexico now for over 30 years, and I've taken groups and taught classes on Mexican language, culture and history.
DQ

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Holy Cow, Podunk. The Jungle might have been more fun, but don't forget that I was a married man at that point and, for all of my faults, I have been a 100% faithful husband. The Jungle would not have been the place for me! I was studying and teaching a couple of classes at UConn then, and I remember the Thursday night goings-on. I had to give quizzes every Friday so that my students would show up (sometimes not in great shape). If it wasn't snowing, you had to bring a shovel on Fridays anyways to make a path through the beer cans!
Yes the Sugar Shack was there, but I didn't really go there often (maybe once or twice)--like I say, I was an old married f**t of 24, and lived a half an hour or more from campus. I still am an old(er) married f**t 31 years later, and still living more than a half an hour from the campus where I teach (not at UConn, but at another school in CT).
DQ

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Sugar Shack? We're back to Jimmy Gilmore and the Fireballs? Only hit record I know of with an ocarina playing melody and definite proof that I'm older than Pam....

Sounds like I'd have liked UConn... I was at Rutgers which is no slouch in the party department but their fun was too alcohol fueled and even at that age more so than I wanted to deal with.

Worse yet - only regular 10 pins on campus...

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Ah, yes, "Smellington". Elllington was a real farming community, even when I lived there (I used to say, truthfully, that I lived 4 houses from the town green, just across from the cornfield!). On spring days, when the farmers had spread chicken manure fertilizer on their fields, it could get pretty pungent, all right. Still, I loved that town--I used to take long walks in the country, pick wild berries right up the street next to the high school, and we had a big garden, since our rented duplex was on a large lot that was once part of a farm. It has gotten more suburban and yuppier since I lived there more than 20 years ago, but it's still a nice area. Podunk, if you lived in the next town over, it could have been in one of many towns (Rockville, Stafford Springs, Tolland and many others)--Ellington didn't have many people, but it bordered on more towns--7, I think--than any other town in the state.

UConn has also grown and changed. It has about twice as many buildings, the parking garages, and of course Gampel instead of the old Field House. I wonder if they ever fixed the library? It kept falling apart, windows and panels coming off all the time, facade cracking, leaks all over the place. The last time I was there, 5 or 6 years ago, they still had sections cordoned off and entrances closed. Both Huskies basketball teams are #1 in the country again!
DQ

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

oh and yeah, yipppppppeeeeee look at our Huskies go :biggrin:!!!! And how about our Ray Allen firing up the Celtics for what looks to be another winning season again WOW!!!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

haha yep -Rutgers, UCONN and a handful of others year after year vying for the title of the biggest party school :rolleyes:

Here too fezo - even though I was at another college in my early years, I declined every invitation to join my friends from UMASS to UCONN and other colleges to the East and West....even though we were of legal age then (well it was being raised in Mass and I was behind that until I reached 20...and then it went to 21 soon after I was 21).

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Funny thing on drinking age. I think I was 20 when it went down to 18 in Jersey before it went back up to 21. Of course different rules, if not actual different laws, apply in colleges. Here I am in a dorm technically owned by the state with kegs around on Saturday with no supervision. It was awful beer which helped keep some of us away...

One thing that I'm sure made an impression on me happened my senior year of high school. NJ had a drinking age of 21 and NY had 18. There were clubs just over the line in New York State for just such things. The big one was a place called Mother's in Warwick, NY. anyway, one of my classmates went up one weekend (well, he went most weekends and sometimes in the week) and was coming home by the usual way which is a twisty road in the hills running next to a big reservoir. He missed a curve and plowed into a tree. That was the end of him.

Well, looks like I'll be through your area sometime later than the early March I first thought I'd be doing, but at one point have to get up there for the duck pins.

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Finally :biggrin:!!! DUCKPINS was great fun today!! Steve, his lovely wife and adorable girls -and I got the lowest score though lol.

Back at my house for a quick bite to eat, a little guitar -Steve is REALLY good and played a few songs -including Don Quioxte!!! I enjoyed this much!

I hadn't bowled at all in sooo many years, and now think I'll go back so I can get a little better!

The owner of the alley told us much interesting info about duckpins -I'll save that for fez to post!!!!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

I have no idea what 'duckpin' bowling is...
Glad to hear you guys met up finally and you didn't throw your back completely out of whack and end up in ER for surgery Pam! Don't tell your surgeon on the 5th you've been bowling tho!
lol
Fezo must be feeling good too!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

A pleasant surprise to hear you all got together! Sounds like it was a good day. Nice people, duckpin bowling (whatever that is), guitar music, bites to eat, nice!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

ahhhhhh hehe glad you mention the "5th" caused me to look at my calendar and my appt is actually the "4th" ;). Gee thanks :p

My back wasn't an issue, pain wise...except the condition sometimes causes referred pain and mobility into my hip. I say 'sometimes' because it depends on what I'm doing or trying to do -that's when I find out! I have the back pain under control for the time being. I'm taking either an asprin or Alleve more regularly (I go without on 'good' days) and not being so stubborn and brave in thinking I can just tough it out. I haven't had to take prescription pain medication (which I get bad side effects from...and I'm allergic to percocet).

I feel so good enough lately that I have actually been itching to get out on a dig :p!!

Fezo looked quite well! A short visit because they had to get back on the road -but we were all relaxed enough to not feel rushed.

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

And beautiful weather too :). That's one nice guitar fezo has and a treat to get to watch/listen to him. He's really good! I enjoyed this much and wish we had more time. And it occurred to me -ok I don't get much company out here but in 9 years...he is the only visitor who has played guitar/sang!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

Yeah, that was a good time. I managed t embarrass myself nicely. Pam was nice and got an even lower score but I kept it close. Both 7 year olds beat us but they had gutter bumpers so they couldn't get 0. We were pretty good at getting zeroes.

I did get to do candle pins up in Maine and the girls didn't have the bumpers. That kept things closer.

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

yeah, I sucked! lol Was fun though! I think I one-upped you with embarrassing myself!

I hope you had a GREAT vacation and all is well!!! :)

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

That guy at the lanes was a riot. I have never known anyone that knew more about various types of bowling in my life and don't expect that I ever will again.

Maybe someone in here play Canadian 5 pin....

The girls loved that. gee, maybe if I get myself back up in north jersey I could get in a duck pin league in Danbury. Only an hour or so drive.... I'm sure they need someone who can bowl in the forties....

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

yeah that guy knows his duckpins!!! It was interesting to listen to him, for sure! I thought he was all done talking and I would have hung out by the counter with you guys if I knew he had more to tell!! But you filled me in on that!

Your girls are so adorable...and so well behaved and I'm glad they had fun too!! I got a kick out of them finding the 2 old guitars here and how motivated they are to play!

Re: Duckpin Bowling
 

just was playing glow in the dark version of 5 pin, with bumpers on the lanes to prevent gutter balls...it's reminded me of an old shuffleboard-like game that have rubber bands...name escapes me....anyhow, i just found out 5 pin is only in canada? among other things, it's a great way for kids to learn how to add the 2 3 5 3 2 point combos (i don't like those e-scoring systems much all)...on the other hand, i don't think get to enjoy this duckpin stuff...i'll have to ask around

last week at a canuck Thanksgiving event, the big draw was mini pumpkin bowling...pumpkins were actually used for many sport variations...anyhow, it's very challenging and especially unpredictable when trying to roll/aim the ones that still had hearty stems on them...anyhow, a gourd time was had by all:)

sorry....but come on, that's not as bad as pale moon, hare or boulder material