Western Lanes on Hillsborough Street has assumed new management and Goodnight Raleigh published a reassuring post to let us know the most valuable features (character and characters) will most likely remain intact. Have we told you how much we’ve been digging Goodnight Raleigh, lately? Let us hope Western Lanes reopens the billiards room, the cocktail bar, and might we suggest they add more signage to let people know that giant building has bowling upstairs? And one more suggestion: Rock-n’-Bowl!
Much of Western Lanes’ charm is derived from the lack of modern scorekeeping computers. The lanes are still used for NC State bowling classes and the students must learn to keep score using a pencil and their brains. But Western Lanes isn’t the only bowling alley in the triangle with character to spare. Village Lanes in Durham is one of the best bowling spots around and has one of the most futuristic scorekeeping setups I’ve ever seen: The Brunswick 2000.

By Futuristic, I do mean yesterday’s future. These look straight out of Playboy Magazine circa 1982 and I imagine they’re powered by Radio Shack TRS-80 computers with tape drives.

At some point during our bowling we had a problem clearing the pins and getting the Brunswick 2000 back on the correct frame and had to request assistance from the guy at the desk. Sure enough, it required some sort of command typed into a terminal to correct the problem. It had all the glamour of the movie Tron but with with the yellowish cast of fluorescent lights.

And one of the greatest things about the alley was the diverse clientele. The kids bowling on the lane next to us were a group of early high school age kids, comprised of a latino guy, two black guys and a white girl. They were all amazing bowlers. The proximity of the Village Lanes to some of Durham’s great taquerias is an added incentive to schedule an outing.








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