The first bowling facility in Grand Falls-Windsor was a two-lane house located on
Bond Street some time prior to 1940. In 1940 the A.N.D. Company built an extension on the Town Club on High Street to include a four-lane bowling facility. In 1959 Edgar “Mac”Dalley from Botwood bought the bowling lanes and opened a bowling centre on Lincoln Road, and introduced the new national pin count of 2-3-5-3-2 instead of the old count of 4-2-1-3-5. In 1960 human pin setters were replaced by automatic pin setters, which were the first of its kind in our province.
The present bowling alley has been located at 20 Lincoln Road for around 28
years and it has been owned by four different owners. The current owner is Robert
Osbourne and he employs four people. The bowling alley is now called
Memory Lanes. Our teacher, Ms. Warr, says that this is a good name because it holds a lot of memories for her generation growing up in Grand Falls-Windsor. She was a teenager when Lincoln Lanes Limited opened a 12-lane facility in the same building. There was a room there with a jukebox where she and all of her teenage friends used to hang out. They were allowed to dance to the music. Not only did they learn to bowl there, Ms. Warr and her friends learned the latest dance steps such as the jive, twist, limbo etc.. In 1977, Angus Carey opened a 12-lane facility in the same building. The automatic pin setters were replaced with string pins. The pin count remained at 2-3-5-3-2, but the game no longer used a "blow pin." When Bert Elliot was the owner of the lanes, he installed an automatic scoring system.
In the winter of 2005 the Bowling Alley was closed to have renovations done. The
reason for this was due to a flood. The bowling alley has 12 lanes to bowl on, and they also offer great music and Glow in the Dark Bowling to make your visit more exciting. It’s a great place to go and have fun with your family and friends, or even have a birthday party. I went there with my class and I had fun bowling. The owner gave me a coupon to go bowling for free with three of my friends.
Austin Lannon (2004-2005)