Last night I played my first game of good old fashioned New England candlepin bowling. Believe it or not I’ve been living here for half a decade and have yet to play a single frame until now. Pretty sad, right? Sacco’s Bowl Haven in Davis Square, once a Somerville landmark, is actually now owned by the organic pizza chain Flatbread Company. However the pizza mongers made a wise decision to reserve most of the original lanes which are still going strong after almost 70 years of play.
Between rounds one of the staff members there over heard my gang’s conversation about wondering what it looked like back there. He came up to me and asked if I had a smartphone and he would go back and take some pictures. Now I just don’t let random strangers borrow my precious HTC EVO for nothing, but my friends peer pressured me into thinking it was a worthy cause so I happily obliged. A few minutes later the Flatbread guy came back with my phone with these shots:
It’s kind of whimsical that this purely mechanical system keeps cranking. I highly recommend the place for a good Somerville night on the town.
Those are really nice pictures of the bowling machine. In Amesbury, Leo’s Super Bowl has a bowling machine in glass in the middle of their gameroom and you can watch it operate. Its awsome.
I have never even heard of cadlepin before now. How is it different from bowling?
Whitney
@Whitney:
Candlepin style bowling is pretty popular in New England and Eastern Canada. In candlepin the bowling ball is much smaller than a traditional bowling ball. If you ever played bocci ball or shot put it’s about that size. The pins are also a different shape and they aren’t cleared away by a machine after each turn.
For more info check out the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepin_bowling
I think that is probably where I used to go candlepin bowling with my grandmother when I was younger.
You had never played candlepin bowling at the Milky Way!?