Because I made a mistake working the keypad that starts the scoring, my initial spare was not recorded, and I never got another one (or a strike). I bowled a 77, which I considered not bad. In my early teens, as an intermittent bowler, I broke 100 only a handful of times before abandoning the sport to other social interests. A perfect game of 13 strikes is 300, and pro bowling scores generally land in the 200s.
At the age of 19 — back when the drinking age in New York was 18 — I had a job as a cocktail waitress at a bowling alley in Wappingers Falls. In addition to its 36 lanes, the alley had a little night club where a band played rock ’n’ roll on Friday and Saturday nights. It was an okay job, with a classically gravel-voiced Italian bartender named Carmine and lots of customers around my age.
My Sunday evening shift was less appealing, when I had to leave the dark cave of the lounge and serve drinks to the loud, blustery middle-aged guys on the bowling leagues. But they sure seemed to be having fun.
The former Holiday Lounge is now advertised as a sports bar, but it still offers live music on weekends, and it’s still connected to Holiday Bowl. Other alleys in the Mid-Hudson Valley have persisted as well, including the Mardi-Bob. Catskill has the Catskill Lanes, and Kingston has two alleys, the HoeBowl on Route 9W and Ferraro’s Mid-City Lanes, near Broadway on Cedar Street.
On a Friday night in February, Mid-City’s 26 lanes were all devoted to league bowling. At 6:15 p.m., bowlers were gathering, chatting, changing their shoes and taking balls out of bags. A few women were present, some with strollers and baby carriers by the tables along the concourse.
The alley’s manager, John Ferraro, was in the workroom beside the pro shop, preparing to drill a ball.
Michael Webster had just bought a new ball, and Ferraro was calculating the placement of the finger holes. “It’s all angles, a lot of math,” he said, explaining that he customizes hole position for the hand size and bowling style of each bowler, based on the situation of weights within the ball. Markings on the outside indicate where the heaviest part of the ball is located.
Webster, who has been bowling for seven years, was induced to join a league by his brother Bruce, involved in the sport for 20 years, since he was a kid. “Ever bowl a perfect game?” I asked. Michael shook his head, but Bruce smiled and nodded.
