I had a dream about bowling, lol. I haven't bowled for over 30 years. I am curious, how much does it cost to bowl a game nowadays? I do not remember what it cost 30 years ago, but I do remember when I first started to bowl it was twenty five cents a game and shortly afterward it moved to thirty five cents a game or 3 games for a dollar. They would stick a red pin in the lot and if it came up as a head pin and you got a strike you would get a free game.

Cost 4.25 a game here in Wa. state.

I pay 22 a night in leagues. Now some of that ( i think 7 ) goes into the prize fund at the end of the year. I think open bowling is 5 or 6 dollars a game. Some leagues may have a slightly cheaper price but then less goes into the prize fund.

Just took my son bowling with his girlfriend and my wife. $4 a game and $2 shoe rental. Cheap entertainment these days.

Youns evah try Candle pin bowling....It's a New England Thing

I have heard of it but have never had the opportunity to try it. I'm still trying to master regular bowling.

Back in 1966 ..when I was 10... We lived on a Navy Base in Mayport Florida...

My dad was in the Navy ..and me and my friends could 10 pin bowl

For .10 cents a string !!! ...bowled alot !

Bowling is pretty cheap unless you include the number of beers needed to get through a game.

We got duck pin bowling about 2 miles from here.

I haven’t been bowling since my grandparents were alive. 20 years ago maybe. Neighboring town of Hopwood has an alley called Manor Lanes and there’s an antique phone booth made of wood and it has a little bench in it. And a door of course to help block out the noise and crashing. I doubt it is still there as payphones around here have become increasingly more rare. I THINK there is still one at a local GetGo gas station…

$1 a game here.

Still only a couple bucka a game here though it's been a few years since I rolled. My wrist just doesn't have the stamina to throw even my 12lb ball more well after a game. Used to be able to throw 10+ rounds a day ba k when I junior bowled.

Now here it’s over an hour to get to a place to bowl, I always enjoyed it, I had trouble finding a ball that would fit my fingers and never had one made, when dad was a kid he used to hand set pins at the alley he always said the later at night you had to be careful of people with too much beer and begin comedians a ball would come screaming down the alley before they got out of the way.

7.50 per line in next town over, needless to say usually has open lanes

Second house “we” rented as kids had an unfinished 7 foot, no concrete floor basement with a crawl entrance.
We cut an entrance in the dining room,,,added stairs and made a bar complete with a short alley.
We put sand in the big soda bottles for pins….

We had an archery range upstairs,,,,,, but that is a different story…..

We did not get our deposit back…………

Reminds me of an alley in Marietta OH I went to once trying to win a bowling scholarship. It was on the second floor of the building. Might of only had 10 lanes, maybe 8. Still had paper cards. Dont think the lanes had ever had a drop of oil. Couldnt throw my normal ball as it couldnt stay on the lanes and my spares ball wasnt much better. Didnt go well obviously. this would of been around 98

A lot of towns have lost their bowling alley, which is unfortunate.

The other night I had a chance to meet this famous PBA Bowler & get his autograph. It made me think of this thread.



I don't know if PBA is popular anymore, but I remember watching it on tv growing up.

I remember walking through the crowded smoke-filled bowling alley to the small arcade room in the late 70’s playing real pin ball machines and 70’s rock on the jute box. Good era to run wild.

I haven’t been to the bowling alley in hopwood for probably 25 years. They had an old wooden phone booth in there and a door that shut and a little wooden seat built in.

We have a Golden Tee arcade machine out in the yurt and you can play bowling on that. I’m VERY good at that lol

This thread was started in early 2025. In September of 2025 I bowled my first 300 game in leagues. It was all down hill after that. LOL