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Vintage Alleys Tour leads to popular front page story in Sunday Wisconsin State Journal

JEFF RICHGELS | Posted: Monday, November 6, 2017 8:00 am
Vintage Alleys Tour leads to popular front page story in Sunday Wisconsin State Journal
Remy Nelan, 12, left, and Chance Leisgang, 11, set pins behind the two lanes of the bowling alley in the lower level of the Fort Atkinson Club in Fort Atkinson. Photo by John Hart, Wisconsin State Journal.

When Yvonne Bennett, the executive director of the Bowling Centers Association of Wisconsin, told me she was going to be organizing a tour of small vintage bowling centers in the state, I immediately thought of the story I could write.

Wisconsin has 84 bowling alleys with between two and six lanes, the most in the country — and yes alley is the correct word for these little gems.

Unfortunately, the day-long Wisconsin Vintage Alleys Tour tour ended up being on Sunday, Oct. 29, and I could not make it with that day falling during the U.S. Open and before the World Series of Bowling — simply too much writing to do, and as it turns out I was in front of my computer for 13 hours that day.

But the tour also made me think of Barry Adams, a reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal — one of the two papers of Capital Newspapers, where I am an online editor — who writes a column called “On Wisconsin” in the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal.

Barry was enthusiastic about the idea and ended up going on the tour with a State Journal photographer.

The story with numerous photos ran on Sunday, Nov. 5, on the front page. A longer version ran online with the photos and also several videos from the tour.

It’s a great read for any bowler or fan of bowling. Check it out here.