Lucky Lanes, Wishek, North Dakota, USA. Visited on December 23, 2022.
The wall is covered in carpet that looks like wood. The same woman’s name is on most of the leaderboards tacked to the walls. She and her son play in the adjacent lane. There are eight lanes. Approximately 40 bowling balls rest on a set of racks. There is a coat rack with 24 hangers.
The guy who takes your money has a five o’clock shadow and he walks with a cane. When he’s not walking, he leans on the counter for support. He wears a blue hoodie and a beanie. It’s well below zero degrees outside. When someone asks for different-sized shoes, he looks annoyed.
Sometimes the bowling alley is open, sometimes it’s closed. If you call the number on the website, you’ll reach someone’s cell phone. The person who answers the phone is somehow involved in the business. The owner? The guy who owns the bar adjacent to the bowling alley? It’s not clear. What matters is that the person who answers the phone isn’t working that night, so they’re not sure if the lanes are open. There’s no other number to call. You’ll just have to show up to find out. If you live in town, that’s not a problem. It’s a one-minute drive.
Still, it takes us another hour to get there. We’re in no rush. You can’t thrive in a town this small if you’re restless. If you haven’t the discipline to sit in silence among others who sit in silence, for hours, you’ll go crazy. So you’d better learn to slow down, find something to look at, especially if all the lanes are occupied when you arrive and there’s a waiting list. You better find some comfort and solace in observation. Try counting the number of lanes! Try counting the number of bowling balls! Try counting the number of hangers on the coat rack! Visit the adjacent bar and order a beer!
Even when a lane opens and it’s your turn to bowl, you must learn patience. At some point, a ball will get stuck in a machine. The woman whose name is on the leaderboards will help the guy who takes your money fix what’s wrong. Maybe you need the rest anyway, if your wrist aches from handling a ball too heavy, with holes too small, exacerbating the nerve pinched in your wrist, the repercussion from years of clacking away on keyboards.
Maybe you enjoy the respite. Maybe you sip your beer and read the names of each record-holder in each category. The names of people you don’t know but whose names you recognize. Okay, and maybe there are one or two names of people you do sort-of know, ranked at or near the top of the Women 500 Club, the Women High Game, the Women’s High Game Week, the Women’s High Series Week, Match Play, and the 12-Game Marathon, both Handicap and Scratch.