Powell bowling alley employee remembers hangout’s past popularity
Cecil Smith/Staff writer
Issue date: 12/6/01 Section: Who's that?
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The students gathered there every night to bowl, shoot pool and just hang out.
“Used to, at night, this place was packed,” Richardson said. “People just came in, drank coffee, smoked…it used to be a huge gathering place.”
Richardson has worked in and around the bowling alley since 1975, but is retiring after this year. When the last manager of the alley resigned five years ago, Richardson took over simply because nobody else would. Even then, the bowling alley was pretty run down, Richardson said.
The machines needed parts, bowling pins needed replaced and the whole alley just needed general maintenance. Richardson brought the place up to date as best he could, with only two full-time employees helping him.
But Richardson said the alley’s attendance was already the lowest he had seen in years. He attributes the drastic decline to a no-smoking policy Eastern implemented in ‘93.
When people couldn’t smoke in the alley anymore, they starting going where they could smoke. Pretty soon, the alley wasn’t allowed to sell cigarettes either, and without that huge chunk of revenue the alley began its rapid deterioration.
But Richardson saw improvement when First Weekend began two years ago.
“I was tickled to death with First Weekend. I was happy to see this place used again,” Richardson said.
However, overall attendance is still much lower than in the past, and with Eastern’s money crunch still in full effect, Richardson says he simply can’t afford to drive from Berea to work everyday.
“Money has been tight, and I was told if I could make run without parts, go for it,” Richardson said.
But it’s not as if the alley has been totally abandoned.