I think you are talking about the Twin Lanterns which was the reception hall down near where the Dirty Dent was. The Water Mill Inn was a restaurant across the street from where KMart was.
They had the best sub sandwiches at Kresge’s lunch counter. I bowled in the Saturday morning youth league at Del-Fair in the early 70s and I would get a sub at Kresges when I was finished. Talk about livin’ large! I loved my Saturday mornings when I was a kid.
You may be right, I gave up bowling for about 20 years because I couldn’t stand the smoke anymore. I got back into bowling a few years after after the smoking ban. I missed the last 10-15 years of Del-Fair’s existence.
That seems to ring a bell... 😉 I can’t remember if she was a daughter or daughter in law. If I recall correctly she was either a Hoinke that married a Goldfuss or a Goldfuss that married a Hoinke. The Goldfuss family was also big in the westside bowling community. I think Charlie Goldfuss...
It definitely dropped off over the years but I feel like it was on its way back before Covid. On the weekends it can be hard to get a lane for open bowling. With bowling being a high school and college sport now I think there is renewed interest among the younger generations.
It may have been 10 or more years ago that the Hoinkes sold, they were looking to sell it to a developer that would have probably torn the place down (at least that is what I heard). At the time we were happy that is was going to continue as a bowling alley, unfortunately the group that bought...
If you are talking about the Hoinkes they did sell years ago. The slide started when the son(s) were running it but has really accelerated under the “new” ownership. Western Bowl is no longer owned locally and you can tell, there is no pride in the place at all. And most (not all) of their...
That looked like a really nice place. Old man Hoinke knew how to run a bowling alley. Western Bowl has never been the same without him, in fact, given it’s current condition my guess is Western Bowl won’t be around in five years. The place is a dump and poorly run. It’s hard to watch that...