Boom “Large assortment of house balls, shoes, bowling pins…”
posted by on April 21 at 14:04 PM
Do you need a dozen swirly-patterned bowling balls, a rotating refrigerated pie display case, or a feeling of profound emptiness that takes you by surprise and doesn’t let you go for a long time? The auction of the contents of Sunset Bowl in Ballard is tomorrow morning, and the heartbreak is free.
(This time last year I went to the last night at Leilani Lanes in Greenwood, where the woman who bowled the ceremonial last ball turned and said, “Now I can cry,” walked into the arms of the closest human, and started weeping. The last ball was a spare. The closest human was me. The auction, too, was destroying, with big boxes of house shoes sitting on the polished lanes as if all the bowlers had been exterminated in order of foot size. I had every intention of going to the last night at the Sunset a week ago Sunday to pay my respects, but then I just went to bed instead.)
I was at the sunset on the last saturday it was open, we bowled 12 games. The last frame was very sad.
Leilani Lanes, which is still just sitting sitting there empty and unrazed. We could have been bowling there this whole time!
The same's going to happen to the Sunset. It'll be wrapped in chain link for the next five years, decaying and blighting the neighborhood. Or, maybe if we're lucky, they'll knock it down and dig a big hole, and leave THAT surrounded by chain link for five years. Or surface parking? Gee, how long has the Twin Tepees site been vacant?
Can't they just install a row of Wiis and keep on bowling? Or, where do divorced dads take their kids when they have visitation now?
My favorite of the auction items (from the catalog) is item #854 - Women's Restroom. You get the toilets and sinks, but does it come with that fantastic smell?
I'm pretty sure that Leilani Lanes has been razed, Levislade.
It wasn't taken down right away, that's true...but I'm pretty sure that there's only gravel there now.
@2 and @3: Leilani Lanes was bulldozed several weeks ago. The Twin Teepees site has the foundation and framing done for whatever it's going to be next (a used car dealership?)
I'm torn between the Brunswick "Learn To Bowl Program" Record & Film Strip Set, the karaoke system (it says no music is included), and the mysterious "crowd control."
What happened to EBay?!! Just because I'm a country away in Delaware doesn't mean I don't need balls...
"Leilani Lanes, which is still just sitting sitting there empty and unrazed. We could have been bowling there this whole time!"
Sure..had you been owned the place and been paying the bills.
Bowling is not profitable enough for Seattle real estate, and bowling alley owners seem to prefer cash in hand to the Other Beautiful Game.
Of course, only for the right price...
The Eastside still has bowling alleys...
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Go ahead, tear me a new one.
It seems like bowling is slowly eroding away from American culture. In Vegas, the biggest bowling alley, at the Showboat casino (100 finely maintained lanes), went away when they demolished the building a few years back... and it didn't seem like anyone was in a hurry to replace them.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).