Within a quarter mile of the house in which I grew up, there is a candlepin bowling alley that I frequented for birthday parties and field trips. It is called Fairway Bowling. From what I can remember, the place is a time machine that shoots you into the 60′s, with its floral carpet and green and orange hues coloring the walls and furniture. Until this weekend, I had never bowled in any other place. As a result, for a large part of my childhood, I thought that candlepin was the way to bowl. Turns out, it’s actually a regional thing.
According to Wikipedia, Candlepin bowling is a variation of bowling that is played primarily in the Canadian Maritime provinces and in the New England states of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
In candlepin bowling, the ball is much smaller and the ten pins are thin and straight, making them much harder to knock down, as they don’t always take the other pins down with them. And, the most important rule is that directly after your turn, you must hit the button that resets the pins for the next player because there isn’t a machine that will do it automatically.
This Saturday, I went to Sacco’s Bowl Haven in Davis Square (another time machine-esque establishment) with my non-native New Englander friends and it was their first time at candlepin.
[Me about to throw a gutter ball while my friends laugh it up]
They say that candlepin is much harder than regular, big ball bowling. Being the only experienced member of the group, one would assume I would have picked it up more quickly. By the end my score was 50 percent worse than the second to last player’s score. And yesterday, my shoulders were sore.
Despite the fact that I am awful, I had so much fun. If this is something you have never tried, I highly recommend adding it to your agenda for your next trip to New England or the Canadian Maritime Provinces.
To get a better sense of how to play, the Massachusetts Bowling Association put together 13 basic rules that you can find here. I highly advice that you take a closer look at #8, #12 and #13.
Huh! That sounds interesting! I’d give it a shot if I were ever around it.
Glad y’all had fun!
I’ve never heard of this! I love bowling, so this is right up my alley (get it? yeah, it’s Monday which makes me more lame than usual).
What??? I’ve never even heard of this, but I want to play now!!!
I Never knew there was another kind of bowling until I was an adult. To me, candlepin bowling IS bowling. My wife from NY disagrees. By the way, just because I am from Boston, I still stink at candlepin bowling!
we were laughing WITH you remember? How on earth did your shoulders hurt–i’d wager the ball was under 2lbs…you need to bulk up for ’10 pin.’ but real bowling alleys have pitchers of beer–so that should help.
you mentioned that you were 50% lower than the second to last, but failed to mention that even the highest score was abysmal.
A few years ago while travelling in Wyoming, there was a young boy play acting like he was bowling. His parents explained that they enjoyed lots of family nights of bowling. I asked the boy what kind of bowling he enjoyed – candlepin or 10-pin, and he stared at me with a look of confusion. His parents then asked me where I was from, because in Maryland (their home state) there was only one kind of bowling! This was just one more reminder for me that as a native Rhode Islander there were many local RI wonders that the rest of the country were missing out on.
That is so cool! I need to get out of the prairies, you guys have all kinds of neat stuff on the coast!
Kyla Beas last blog post..Some Things
There is a great candle pin bowling alley in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, I am a native midwesterner who never knew about candlepin bowling and my husband is a native New Englander and I killed him at candlepin bowling!
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Great read. I wish I could write better. I can barely write a shopping list.
[...] In all of my life, bowling to me has meant one thing – Candlepin. I can’t help it, I’m a New Englander. [...]