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Washington, D.C., circa 1926. "Jewish Community Center bowling alley." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size.
Nowadays it's hard to be really bad at bowling as the modern waxes really help mediocre out. These alleys don't look to have any wax on them at all. I bet there were a lot of low scores counted at the JCC.
Duckpins still thriving in my native RI, see link:
http://www.ridba.net/
Pins were bigger, but it looks like the bowling alley where I used to set pins. You had to lift the bar and get your feet up out the way fast or you would get nailed by flying pins!
My first job ever was being a pin boy; hiding behind a small wooden piece between lanes, pressing a foot pedal to set pins and giving the ball a good push to get back to the bowlers.
$.10 per bowler per game - 2 teams, 5 man each 3 games = $3.00 a night. I learned quickly how to keep score and moved up and out of the pits.
use the same alley and same size pin only we use five pins, strangely enough it's called Five Pin Bowling.
That's all I ever saw when growing up overseas in the '50s. Wasn't until I got to the US that I ever saw big pins.
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