Beantown Bowling

http://www.saccosbowlhaven.com/

Just this week, I discovered that going bowling in Boston (and possibly other parts of New England as well, I’m not sure) is actually something worth writing home about…so I will!

First of all, if someone asks you if you want to go bowling, they probably are referring to what they have termed “candle-pin bowling” here in Massachusetts.  If you all, like I was yesterday, are wondering what this is, it is basically bowling in miniature…well almost.  The balls are about 1/4th the size of a normal bowling ball, are wooden, have no holes for your fingers & are shared by everyone…because they’re all the same!  The pins, in turn, are also shrunken to maybe half the size of a normal bowling pin and are in the shape of candles, standing straight up and down, but with no rounded bottom.  The only part that is not in miniature or shrunk is the size of the alley itself…SO, basically you have a full sized alley with the smaller pins at the same distance away, but you have to hit them with a tiny ball that is much harder to control!

The rules are a little different as well, which was good for those of us needing a higher handicap.  In each frame, you get three throes, but don’t be mistaken, we were still hard-pressed to knock down 8-9 pins each time & even though one gal (from Georgia as well!) managed a spare, nobody ever knocked down all 10 pins at the same time!  The score was all kept manually on a different type sheet than normal bowling, which was easy, since all we had to do was simple addition with our lack of spares and strikes!

Another difference in the bowling “culture” up here (and I’m told other places in the North generally) is that (I’m assuming because of the heinous weather!) people go bowling ALL the time & make a whole evening of it…So, the bowling alley was also a fully functional Brick-Oven Italian Restaurant and Bar with unbelievably delicious pizza & a variety of organic food specials that sounded great & I hope I get to try out again!  So, while you’re waiting on your lane (there was a 2 hour wait for a lane when we got there!), you can sit down to a nice meal and relax with your friends or family.  This strikes me as a contrast to a lot of our seedy bowling alleys in the South where cigarette smoke, plumber’s crack & cut-off t-shirts are pretty much the norm!  All in all, it was a great experience; we bowled 2 games, didn’t manage to break 100, but had a great time…all only a mile from my house right in Davis Square @ $3 a game, not a bad way to escape the cold, while still getting out of the house!  

Pictures courtesy of my buddy from Knoxville's iPhone...the hands up were a poor imitation of a steller 70's bowling photo on the wall...you had to be there!