Over at NPR, they have a great little featurette on obsolete professions. In words and photos, the former occupations they explore include river driver, copy boy, and lector. Not surprisingly, the bygone jobs that resonate with us most are those of typesetter and pinsetter. You can even hear pingirl Nancy Richmond recall her days at the bowling alley, clearing deadwood and uprighting the pins.As a kid, Duckpin's Pete and his brother James would frequent the basement duckpin alley at the local YMCA, where the pinsetting was manual. We each took our turns in the pit dodging the flying pins. Even more dangerous than the flying pins were our own friends. They liked to play chicken with us, intentionally hurling balls at us as we were setting up the pins. Let's just say bowling balls and shins don't mix. Not all the marks at that alley were on the score sheet.
Whoa...I didn't know that about the Y!
ReplyDeleteNo doubt your parents were often left in the dark. Any other secrets you want to share???
ReplyDeleteIt seems like that was just the start of formative events that may or may not have occurred at a local YMCA...
ReplyDeleteThough that place provided a bevy of traumatic childhood moments, it also instilled a love of duckpin bowling. In that end, that will be its enduring legacy.
ReplyDelete(Oh, and the fact that the locker rooms smelled like a fat chick's armpit.)