The American Spectator : Bowling Alone

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Bowling Alone

By Jeremy Lott from the February 2012 issue

Strike while the lanes are hot and the pins a'quivering.

Bowling is cheap therapy. Rather than pay a Dr. Melfi-type $150 an hour to listen to your troubles, you plunk down $10 on the counter, change into the funny shoes, and start firing the heavy ball down that long, skinny lane, between the two gutters.

You have issues? Tell it to the pins. Then knock them down -- all of them. Some people find uplift in the symphonies of Beethoven. To those of us of a more caveman sensibility, true sublimity is more often found in the explosive sound of our ball finding the pocket, sweeping all before it.

According to Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, that makes me a part of the problem, because I have not yet joined a bowling league. In the nineties, Putnam wrote the popular article cum book called Bowling Alone about the collapse of what he called "social capital" in the United States. (Think "civic virtue" in cramped quarters.) The rise of individual bowling and the relative decline of league play was held up as yet another sign of our unraveling social fabric.

Why Putnam thought bowling the most telling indicator of decline is something of a bafflement. This was the nineties, remember, decade of the L.A. riots, Columbine, and Jerry Springer. Here was one of America's most prominent political scientists getting worked up because some bowling leagues in Barberton, Ohio, or Oshkosh, Wisconsin, were having a hard time fielding new members.

Maybe it was the thing about the kidney transplant that got him. Putnam tells the story of John Lambert and Andy Boschma from Ypsilanti, Michigan. Lambert needed a kidney and Boschma, a friend from his bowling league, just happened to have one lying around.

"This moving story speaks for itself," writes Putnam, but he won't let it. He says the Ann Arbor News photo of the two friends "reveals that in addition to their differences in profession and generation, Boschma is white and Lambert is African American. That they bowled together made all the difference." Your humble bowler will try to feel duly chastened, un-diverse, and over-kidneyed the next time I head to the lanes.

Yet several critics have noted that Putnam's whole characterization of bowling was seriously misleading. Those who "bowl alone" are rarely alone, if for no other reason than that bowling alleys are intensely social settings. The restaurants and bars and other entertainments are at least as important to the alley's bottom line as the actual bowling. Stick around long enough and people will get to know your name, and you theirs.

They'll also start to hint that maybe you'd like to join a league. I may, eventually, but there are good reasons to hold off. Leagues are major time and money drains and they come in two types: scratch leagues and handicap leagues. Handicap leagues are for levelers. The better player spots the worse one the difference between their averages. That kind of Bolshevik bowling holds no interest for me, and with an average in the 140s (high game: 204) I am not yet good enough for the scratch leagues.

Another worry is that league bowling won't be nearly so fun. "You bowl like Fred Flintstone," said one cousin, and she was on to something there. Most serious bowlers work tirelessly on refining their form. I run like a madman and let fly my ball—a glossy black Japanese 15-pound birthday present—for four or five quick games. On good days, the pins fall over out of fear.

Usually, this is a solo act, but not always. Any time a friend calls up and asks if I want some company, I say, "Why yes, I yabba dabba do."

About the Author

Jeremy Lott is editor of RealClearBooks.com and RealClearReligion.org and associate editor of RealClearScience.com.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment

Mike| 2.24.12 @ 7:12AM

Bowling is also a great family activity that those of different ages and abilities can enjoy together. The younger ones use bumpers and have a great time (and often higher scores).

chris123| 2.24.12 @ 7:31AM

Last time I went to a regular bowling alley it cost me over $50 for my wife, son and I to bowl for an hour.

Since then we've discovered the (low-tech) joys of duck-pin bowling. $1.50 each for the shoe rental and $20 an hour for the lane.

Once you go duckpin, you'll never go candlestick.

TRW| 2.24.12 @ 8:34AM

My initial thought after reading is: typical Harvard don, all full of broad brush generalizations without knowing what is going on in the heartland of REAL America, i.e. what makes America great.

The mid 1990's? I can remember the introduction of "Disco Bowling" on Fridays and Saturday nights. It was a hit. They darkened the normal lighting, turned on some special lights, got the big disco ball spinning, and some older 70's and such tunes playing. A lot of people wore white or lighter colors; it was a real visual kaleidescope while trying to knock down the pins. This occurred in Fall 1995.

I guess Harvard dons don't much mingle with the "commoners" in the Midwest. Perhaps the decline in active bowling leagues exposed the need for many of these 1970's built bowling alleys to do their much needed renovations. Once renovations, improvements were in place, people returned.

The author is right. If you are a friendly person, you don't really bowl alone even if alone on your lane. A bowling alley can be a very socially pleasant place to be. People are less pretentious there.

albert constantine jr.| 2.24.12 @ 9:31PM

About 30 years ago, at one of the local lanes we would have midnight bowling with the red head pin. If you scored a strike when the red-colored pin was in the #1 position, your game was free.

Chester Keuckalewicz| 2.24.12 @ 9:46AM

Bowling is a good reason to drink beer. My gutter ball is always the strongest one in any alley I bowl.

Tina B| 2.24.12 @ 10:39AM

I can remember bowling with my late (athletically challenged) hubby many moons ago. We went bowling to drink beer, have fun with friends, have fun with strangers, eat cheap fries, have fun with selves, take my beautiful bowling ball with amber swirls and "Tina" engraved on it out of the bag, polish it, and all kinds of other cool reasons to make a night of it. Thanks for reminding me Jeremy, those were some good times.

Paul from SA| 2.24.12 @ 10:43AM

I used to bowl a lot....

Bowling these days is very, very expensive. It's too expensive. It's a ripoff.

They don't maintain their lanes and equipment. They don't allow for warm-ups. Kids are loud and rude. Service is terrible. The employees behind the counter are space cadets. There's no bowling etiquette.

Petronius| 2.24.12 @ 10:55AM

I used to bowl a lot when it was $1 a line and had a 181 average when I quit. Most of the bowling alleys here have long since been replaced by Walgreens as the old hard core league players died off along with their owners. Wakes were held for those of notoriety. Arcade Lanes and the old Dubowl perished in conflagrations. Red Bird, Palace and Arway got Walgreened. Stein Bros. was leveled for a bank, Arena is now retirement condos, and the small houses owned by churches were stripped out for office or service space. Even the Bowling Hall of Fame across from Busch Stadium #2 decamped for lack of patronage. And the pro tour is no longer viable. So whyizit? Since a lot more boomers went to college and didn't follow their fathers into the trades or factory jobs they did other things where drinking Bud was pro forma, like darts and pool. And league bowling meant a time commitment of the same evening every week from the week before Labor Day until June. Team sponsorship also went south. Then video games were a hit with gen X and the old operators threw in the towel. Add to it the other sports like BMX bikes and skateboarding backed by corporate cash and look where we are now. Bowling was what grandpa did a couple nights a week. It has no cachet and little interest. But the main reason is the old business models and lifetime employment in established companies are over. Until the 80's that situation for most people was a steady-state universe. The changes since then in manufacturing and skilled trades put an end to that. Many industries which employed the old bowlers are now gone along with them. Given the current anti business bent of government, who has the time or the money, except for guys who are retired?

Bob Grant| 2.24.12 @ 9:42PM

The metro Gen Xer's shudder at the idea of entering a bowling alleys 'cause they might have encounters with real men. Plus:

* They wouldn't dare put their freshly pedicured feet into stinky shoes (they might have a point there)
* Their limp wrists can't effectively use a ball weighing over 4 pounds
* They wouldn't dare allow Bud, Coors, or Miller lite to pass their lips
* The concession stand's not up to their foodie/Food Network standards
* It's not a real game unless it's played on a monitor

... Today, in order to attract said demographic, they feel the need to turn them into discotheques. I say let 'em die with dignity and bulldoze 'em.

Patrick| 2.26.12 @ 11:39PM

1.) Ah, "metro" is more Gen Y these days. You just don't have the time or energy to maintain the hair just right with mortgage, wife, kids, etc.

2.) As for the shoes, well, you may as well buy a pair of your own with your league shirt.

3.) Bowling, if you want to get anything out of league play, requires that you drop a whole lot of money. If you want to make money in Wisconsin, for instance, you'll probably have to own about 4-6 different balls, each costing $3-400.00 before drilling. On top of that, there's the cost of the lane for practice - you're going to be there a long, long time. Then there is the cost of the league itself. No, money is the primary killer of bowling. A shame really.

Ron| 2.24.12 @ 12:20PM

The same may be said for shooting sports as well...Not talking hunting so much as shooting leagues...Now days the individual is stressed more than putting together a team and competing against other teams...Especially true in places where you essentially have to shoot indoors...Lane rental can be spendy, and there is not the snack and drinking aspect (of course, because mixing drinking and firearms is dangerous.) Yearly memberships in some of the big shooting stores (like one in Phoenix) can be a bit much for the recreational shooter.

Petronius| 2.24.12 @ 6:14PM

Shooting is a different deal altogether. If you do more than small bore, maintenance, reloading, and practice are a good deal more work than pleasure. And if you're in the expert or master classes, staying at that level isn't easy. Skeet and trap are declining, but sporting is growing. And the young shooters participating at the Jr. Olympic qualifying events are at an all time high. Collegiate shooting is growing. Lindenwood U has banked 6 NCAA titles and one of their International skeet shooters was on the team in Beijing. The sport isn't cheap. But it's not going away.

Bob Grant| 2.24.12 @ 1:05PM

During the 60's, 70's, and early 80's bowling garnered huge ratings for ABC, rivaling the major professional sports. Go figure! Who can forget, however, Chris Schenkel's voice, aquanet/beehive hairdo's throughout the audience, and the classic bowling shirts. Earl Anthony, Dick Weber, etc.

I never was much of a bowling fan, per se, but liked to watch it on TV. I"m more of a golfer.

I considered taking up the sport several years ago but recent attempts to turn bowling alleys into discotheques was a bridge too far. It's bowling. It is what it is!

Dipesto| 2.24.12 @ 3:44PM

American culture lost something with the demise of local TV stations giving us Bowling for Dollars on Sunday morning at the Superbowl Lane with local pins stars from different sides of town going against one another; Mildred vs Betty or Ed vs. Ray, with one of the local TV or radio stars covering the whole thing. And it was sponsored by a local used car dealership. Like local Saturday night TV rasslin at 10p.m something grandly tacky is gone from American life. And what became of Tommy Jones?

Petronius| 2.24.12 @ 6:18PM

Like the man said, "nostalgia ain't what it used to be."

Dipesto| 2.24.12 @ 7:50PM

Yes, I know. And I may have done a non pc thing by typing "used cars." They are now "pre-owned." And a local dealership where I live calls his used preowned cars "pre-enjoyed" now.

Bob Grant| 2.24.12 @ 9:25PM

I was more offended with 'rasslin' . It's wrestling and its real!

albert constantine jr.| 2.24.12 @ 9:55PM

In German class some decades ago I learned a song for which the lyrics went something like “Man muss zusammen kegel gehen”, which translated roughly as you must go bowling together. While a command is not unusual in Germanic language and culture, the gist of the ditty was that in order to achieve some level of understanding with your colleagues and adversaries, you should bowl together, as the game reveals character (all right, in the manner of Frank Drackman, I might be adding something from “Dodgeball” into the mix).

Before I take anything written here too seriously, I think Jeremy Lott should sign an affidavit that he did not get this idea from a song in a German class.

If one concurs, though, that there is something to be achieved from rivals bowling together, should it be proposed that the next Republican debate should take place at an alley in a Super Tuesday state, with the candidates getting a chance to show off their footwork as well as their balls?

Bob Grant| 2.24.12 @ 10:07PM

Al,

Have you been watching the debates? Those guys have enough difficulty making it to the podiums.

Bowling?

albert constantine jr.| 2.24.12 @ 10:29PM

They didn't look comfortable at the tables, either. At least at a bowling alley, we could see Mitt pouring beer from the pitcher into Ron Paul's mug (as a Mormon, I don't expect Mitt would have anything stronger than Sprite), or Rick blessing himself before he puts his hand over the the little blow dryer, Newt checking out the woman in the next alley, etc.

Some extra super Delegates could be awarded on the basis of pins scored, as well.

I don't think it is a good way to choose a nominee, I'm just not sure that our current process is superior.

Richard Baker| 2.25.12 @ 3:28AM

chris123:
You must be in Maryland, I'm supposing. When I was a kid growing up in '60s Northern Virginia, used to watch duckpin bowling on WBAL-TV out of Baltimore. Never did it myself but the technique seemed to be very different from regular bowling. Long ago, I belonged to a bowling league on our post in Baumholder, West Germany and really enjoyed it and we always had a good time, especially the German bier (beer in English).