Keegan: Bowlers back in house
Generally, you find what you’re looking for in life. Wayne Martin, who runs Royal Crest Lanes and the adjacent bar and restaurant with Larry Burton, Lawrence’s best lefty bowler, could find the sunny side of life if he lived in a cave with no exit.
When the city enacted a smoking ban, Martin could have turned the Mojave Desert into an ocean of tears. He didn’t. Listen to what he has to say about the smoking ban now:
“So many people drink and smoke when they bowl, we thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to lose everybody.’ We lost five bowlers, and they all came back the next year. You know what went up? Family bowling. They didn’t like coming in because they always left smelling like smoke. We attracted 10 to 15 percent more bowlers because of the non-smokers. It was awesome. Best thing that ever happened to us. If they’re going to smoke, they go outside. Of course, we get a lot more cigarette butts out front. So be it. We can sweep those up.”
The house – that’s what bowlers call their alley of choice; just learned that, thought I’d share it – re-opened Tuesday after an Aug. 4 electrical fire. That cost Martin and Burton a few weeks of league play, a lot of money. Again, the Will Rogers of the bowling world drank from a half-full glass. Cubs fans are conditioned to look at life that way.
“You’ve got to look for the positives in everything,” Martin said, his Chicago accent in full bloom. “Just like this. It was a bummer being down for a month. Everything was terrible. It was ugly. But you know what, we put brand-new ceilings in the place. The place was totally cleaned up, painted. A lot of things were done that maybe needed to be done.”
Martin’s voice was swallowed up by crashing pins fired by a nearby one-handed bowler.
Dennis Jacobsen knocked off some rust, his fractured left wrist in a cast from a softball injury. Many softball players turn to bowling when summer passes.
“The lanes are in great condition,” Jacobsen said. “The lighting is fabulous. All new lighting.”
Desperately trying to fit in and hide my lack of experience, I weaved bowling jargon into conversations.
I asked: Were the lanes arid or icy?
“Not too oily, not too dry,” Jacobsen answered.
He didn’t throw any marshmallows, moats, creepers or chops. Forgot to ask him if he had any Woolworths (5/10 splits, named after the five-and-dime store).
Jacobsen looked back, none too fondly, on the days before the smoking ban.
“It was a big haze,” he said.
Larry Caldwell was back pitching strikes, too. Scratch that, that’s a baseball term.
Any ankle shots, Larry?
“No ankle shots,” he said. “I’ve had a few of those, and they hurt.”
His favorite bowling term?
“I try not to think about it,” Caldwell said. “I’m just a spare-of-the-moment guy anyway.”
Rick Bailey starts league play tonight. He stopped by to “put stuff back in my locker.”
“It’s just so much brighter, and it’s just kind of nice to have the bowling alley back open,” Bailey said.
For serious keglers, there’s no place quite like the house.