For fans of Natick, MA or candlepin bowling…. From May
23, 2011 New York Times
Courtesy of Skip DeMelle
Title: Mourning the
Loss Of Yet Another Alley. (National Desk)(NATICK, MASS.)
The New York Times
Abby Goodnough. (May
23, 2011)
''It's all over with,'' Marilyn Onorato said, casting a final gaze over the 32 lanes at
Fairway Bowling. ''Boo hoo.''
She was trying to be stoic. But in
the world of candlepin bowling, the loss of Fairway, which closed last week
after nearly 56 years, feels huge.
This was where Mrs. Onorato, 78, and countless others from the Boston suburbs
competed at a uniquely New England sport, as tricky to master as it is for
outsiders to understand. Candlepin bowling uses much smaller balls and skinnier
pins than the traditional game, making it harder to score points -- and easier
for champions to gloat.
Mrs. Onorato
was one in her day, as was her late husband, Fran, a member of the
International Candlepin Bowling Hall of Fame. More recently, Mrs. Onorato played in a Tuesday night league at Fairway, whose
84-year-old owner, Helen Sellew, decided there was no
longer enough business to stay open.
Fairway joins a long list of
shuttered candlepin bowling alleys; about 40 remain members of the
Massachusetts Bowling Association. Some modernized to survive, but Fairway
stayed old-fashioned, with no video games, alcohol or other diversions. It also
stayed unglamorous, though some found the carpeting on the walls a pleasing
touch.
For years it was the site of a
Saturday television show, ''Candlepin Bowling,'' that had a cultish local
following.
''When they took away our show,
everything changed,'' Mrs. Onorato said. ''Nobody had
anything to compete for anymore.''
On one recent afternoon, only four
lanes were being used, the din of the grapefruit-size balls the only sound.
Mrs. Onorato
left quietly. A couple in their 40s from Wellesley who had
bowled there as children allowed more sentiment, taking their final scorecard as
a souvenir.
Outside, the marquee bid farewell to
generations of candlepin fans: ''We loved you all! Please remember us!''
ABBY GOODNOUGH
COPYRIGHT 2011 The
New York Times Company
Goodnough, Abby.
"Mourning the Loss Of Yet Another Alley." New
York Times 23 May 2011: A12(L). General OneFile. Web. 24 May 2011.
Document URL
Lane closings
NATICK — The 32 lanes of one of the most prominent suburban
bowling alleys in the
area will go dark next Friday night, as Fairway Bowling, a Route 9
institution, shuts its
doors after nearly 56 years in business.
The prospect of Fairway’s closing — the latest of several local
bowling alleys to close
recently — is “like a death,’’ said Helen Sellew,
who with her father and brother,
helped open the business in 1955 on part of their family’s dairy farm.
“When we opened, everyone bowled,’’ said the 84-year-old owner.
Fairway, which
charged $1 for three games, or strings, in the 1950s, was so popular that
it expanded
from 16 lanes to 32 just five years after opening, and the family
built a golf putting
and driving range behind the complex.
Over the years, the long, squat building with the orange-paneled
façade and the
brown and tan fiberglass benches became familiar to fans of the
long-running local
television show “Candlepin Bowling,’’ hosted on weekends by Don Gillis on
WCVBTV,
featuring the distinctive New England bowling style that features smaller
balls
and thinner pins than traditional tenpin bowling.
Yesterday, Fairway’s faithful bowlers, nearly all in their 80s,
lamented its end.
“I hate to see it close,’’ said Bob Cowie,
81, who has been bowling with close friends
Ed Lupinksi, also 81, and
Joseph Quagliozzi, 80, all of Waltham, for nearly a halfcentury.
This is the third regular bowling haunt the trio has watched
close. Riverside Lanes in
Newton closed in the 1980s, and the Wal-Lex
bowling and roller-skating complex shut
its doors in 2002.
Just last month, the 90-year-old Needham Bowlaway,
an eight-lane candlepin alley
nestled on a basement floor near Needham Center, also closed its doors.
On its
Facebook page, the Needham alley thanked customers for their support, but
said the
economy had made it impossible to stay in business.
“There’s not too many places left,’’ said Quagliozzi.
The men said they would probably begin bowling at the Acton Bowladrome next
month.
The state has approximately 40 remaining candlepin bowling alleys
registered with the
Massachusetts Bowling Association, according to the group’s
website.
Al Gangi, president of the association,
called the Fairway closing a blow to the state’s
bowling industry.
“Whenever you lose a candlepin center, it means a tougher time for
everyone still
here,’’ he said.
The association’s membership includes approximately 40 remaining
candlepin alleys,
down from a high of more than 100 members in the 1970s, said Gangi, whose family
has operated bowling alleys in Woburn, Gloucester, and Milford, N.H.,
for three
generations.
At the Fairway, which uses old-fashioned scorecards and rents a
pair of scuffed
maroon-and-navy bowling shoes for $3.25, Sellew
agreed earlier this year to sell the
33,000-square-foot building and surrounding
property. It was assessed by the town
in
for $2.8 million and has gone to another local business, the Dover
Rug Co., which has
said it will probably move its showroom there.Continued...
Page 2 of 2 --
For decades, the Fairway hosted leagues at 5 p.m., 7 p.m., and 9
p.m., said Sellew.
Today, only the 7 p.m. time slot is used.
There was a time when suburban women were regular daytime bowlers,
and men
were avid after-work bowlers, wearing colorful shirts bearing their
company or civic
organization logo.
But women entering the workforce on a larger scale in the late
1970s and 1980s created
a sea change for activities like bowling. It became harder to fit
into busy family life,
she said.
But over the decades, Fairway always prided itself on being
“clean, safe, and
friendly,’’ Sellew said. Her father disliked
pinball machines and their descendants —
arcade video game machines — and never allowed them, keeping the Fairway
a
calmer, family establishment focused on bowling, she said.
Many of the successful contemporary bowling businesses — including
Kings in
Boston, Lanes & Games in Cambridge, and Metro Bowl in Peabody
— incorporate
video games, light shows, and even cocktails into the experience, but
that was never
the Fairway’s niche.
“It’s been said you can’t make a living the old way anymore, and
maybe that’s right,’’
Sellew said. Yet, she refused to sell the Fairway as a bowling business,
choosing
instead to see it close.
“Nobody would have run it the right way, the way I wanted,’’ she
said
A typical weekday still draws about 100 bowlers. Fairway is still
a lively place on
weekends, Sellew said, with hundreds of younger
bowlers paying $4 per game. But
that is not enough to sustain a business that has sky-high bills for
heating and air
conditioning, in addition to other expenses, she said.
Gloria Cullati, 88, of Framingham is
part of a Thursday afternoon women’s bowling
club and has been coming to Fairway since 1960.
“We just love the sociability and sitting together,’’ she said.
Mechanic Jeremy Seaholm, 30, who keeps
the pin machines and scoring machines in
working order, has been working full time since graduating from high
school 12 years
ago. He considers himself lucky to have found a new job as a bowling
alley mechanic
at Ryan Family Amusements in Millis, but will work at Fairway until
the last pin falls.
“A lot of people are saying they are going to miss this place,’’ Seaholm said.
The staff does not plan a party for the May 20 closing date,
though the lanes will be
open until 11 p.m. as usual.
The landmark marquee will probably bear a final message, Sellew said, yet to be
determined.
“I think we’ll just say that we’ll really miss everyone,’’ she
said.
Erica Noonan can be reached at enoonan@globe.com.
© Copyright 2011 Globe Newspaper Company.