Wednesday, December 27, 2000

Duckpin Bowling

I was driving in to work this morning and listening to \"the comments of Frank Deford\" on NPR's Morning Edition. I don't like sports, but Deford has a whole trove of amusing anecdotes that don't always have to do with sports, and when they do, don't always have to do with football. This morning he was reminiscing about Duckpin Bowling as a child in his hometown of Baltimore.



This started a cascade of memories. My mother used to take me to the bowling alley where she bowled in a women's league. Sometimes after her game she'd play duckpins with me. When I mention it to most people, they seem never to have heard of this flavor of bowling.



Since Deford mentions that he grew up playing it in Baltimore, and I most likely played it in Maryland as well, growing up in Washington, D.C. as I did, I wondered if it was more of a regional thing. According to this site, "Duckpins is mostly bowled on the east coast, but due to a lack of media coverage, it's less seen than tenpins."



So there you go. Once more the Internet comes to my rescue to let me know I'm not insane "qbullet.smiley".

2 comments:

  1. I live in a state that has no Duckpin lanes, I miss the game, I live in Enterprise Alabama, bur I'm from Maryland and used to Bowl At Marlow Bowling Alley it used to be a Duckpin center then went tenpen was wondering if there was a way to get a DP alley down here and the cost to maintain a center thanks

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  2. Richard,
    I'm glad to hear of another soul from the D.C. area who remembers the game. I don't think I've played it since i was a child, around 40 years ago!
    If you ever start up a duckpin alley in Alabama, I'd be interested to hear about it. Won't do me much good in Oregon, but it'd be fun to know someone was spreading a game from my childhood. Take care!

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