New2view's Blog   Life on The Blue Marble

Tonight there was CBC news about the ‘demise’ of bowling alleys.

As a young teen I worked as a ‘pin setter’ in a Vancouver East side Kingsway Bowling Alley on weekends. It was possible to earn a fair wage, for a teen, if you were called upon. You had to patiently wait in a lounge area until business dictated the need, I think that’s where I began smoking cigarettes unfortunately. Of course this was in the 50’s, well before automated setting machines came into use.

Eventually, with experience,  I was able to quickly reset ‘two’ lanes of 10 pins at once, competing with other pin-setters when there was intense bowling team competitions, no easy feat, I had just enough hand-span to pickup four pins per time!  Of course 5 pins were much easier. It was actually quite dangerous sitting feet up between two lanes of flying pins which sometimes struck you. But the rewards seemed to make it worth the risk.

One night a couple of late gambling bowlers just wouldn’t quit, the only ones bowling. I was their pinsetter and exhausted. My older brother Jim came by since it was getting late. When he saw my situation he demanded an end, but Wally the manager, wouldn’t interrupt paying customers. Anyway I survived. Overall the pin-setting experience was, perhaps,  a worthwhile youth learning lesson of some kind. Maybe my grandchildren can learn from that experience.?