Remember When

[The Maven]

Remember When

Remember buying an Amflite bowling ball instead of a Manhattan Rubber because the $3 price difference was too much?
Remember when lanes were oiled with a spray can in the morning and that was all?
Remember trying to pick up the 10 pin with over the top returns?
Remember keeping score with a grease pencil?
Remember when the lanes were all maple?
Remember when one bowling ball was enough?
Remember when soaking a bowling ball for 1 hour was tooooo long?
Remember when an All Spare patch was more common than a 300 ring/patch?
Remember when some houses gave a new car for a sanctioned 300?
Remember the Ebonite Open at Saragota Lanes, when all 16 PBA finalists were left-handed?
Remember bringing your bowling ball in an ice chest to pass the durometer test?

Am I dating myself?

[J Anderson]

I remember seeing Manhattan Rubber ball being used.
I remember when no one ever talked about the lane oil.
I remember over the top returns? Didn't seem to me that they got in the way on 10 pins.
I remember and still miss keeping score with a grease pencil.
I seem to recall that only the approaches, heads, and pin deck were maple, from the arrows to the pin deck was pine.
I remember when one bowling ball was enough. And it would last a casual league bowler for decades.
I don't remember when soaking bowling balls at all back in the day.
I don't remember seeing an All Spare patch or a 300 ring/patch?
Remember when some houses gave a new car for a sanctioned 300? no.
Remember the Ebonite Open at Saragota Lanes, when all 16 PBA finalists were left-handed? No.
Remember bringing your bowling ball in an ice chest to pass the durometer test? Never competed at the level where mine had to be tested.

Am I dating myself? Yes!

[classygranny]

Remember When

Remember buying an Amflite bowling ball instead of a Manhattan Rubber because the $3 price difference was too much? I remember Manhattan Rubber but not prices...
Remember when lanes were oiled with a spray can in the morning and that was all? No, they used a machine, but who cared?
Remember trying to pick up the 10 pin with over the top returns? The only thing about top returns was bowling period with the ball coming at you.
Remember keeping score with a grease pencil? Yes, I loved it!
Remember when the lanes were all maple? Unknown...why would a bowler care what wood they were made of?
Remember when one bowling ball was enough? No, bowlers always wanted more.
Remember when soaking a bowling ball for 1 hour was tooooo long? No, why would you ever soak a bowling ball?
Remember when an All Spare patch was more common than a 300 ring/patch? Yes.
Remember when some houses gave a new car for a sanctioned 300? Yes - usually Cadillac
Remember the Ebonite Open at Saragota Lanes, when all 16 PBA finalists were left-handed? No, not really
Remember bringing your bowling ball in an ice chest to pass the durometer test? No, always had my balls legal

Am I dating myself? Maybe, not as bad as I thought...lol

[Hammer]

Remember when pin spotters set up racks of pins before automatic pin setters? That had to be one heck of a workout jumping into the pit to set up pins all night for the bowlers. Looked like it could be kind of dangerous too.

[bowl1820]

Remember when soaking a bowling ball for 1 hour was tooooo long? No, why would you ever soak a bowling ball?

In this case I'd say it's a reference to Don McCune, back in the 70's he used what became known as a "soaker ball" during a PBA Competition. McCune back in his motel soaked his ball (A white Dot I believe) in a bucket of "MEK" (Methyl Ethyl Keytone). It softened the cover so it hooked more. They didn't have rules against doing that sort of thing back then.

Given if you didn't know what you were doing (Which most didn't), If you left it in there too long the ball would melt.

The soaker was banned soon after not just because it softened the ball. But because of safety concerns, they couldn't have dozens of bowlers soaking balls in the hotels. It was a big fire hazard.

This also explains the need for a ice chest, to keep it cold enough so the shell was hard enough to pass the durometer test.)


Today soaking a ball usually is in reference to de-oiling in a Hot water bath.

[The Maven]

The first test for finding a soaker was to use the sizing ring. If the ball didn't fit through, it got tossed for competition. The only result was that a few bowlers got their Brunswick Black Diamonds tossed because it would not fit through the ring. My Black Diamond you had to pop or force through the ring, but it went.

[bowl1820]

The first test for finding a soaker was to use the sizing ring. If the ball didn't fit through, it got tossed for competition. The only result was that a few bowlers got their Brunswick Black Diamonds tossed because it would not fit through the ring. My Black Diamond you had to pop or force through the ring, but it went.

Never heard of it making a ball expand, could get it out of round though and not fit through a ring.

For those interested this is a sizing ring:
There are two sizes
Minimum Diameter (8.500")
Maximum Diameter (8.595")

[Wigman]

Remember When

Remember buying an Amflite bowling ball instead of a Manhattan Rubber because the $3 price difference was too much? I have Manhattan Rubber that I got from my grandpa, what was special about it?
Remember when lanes were oiled with a spray can in the morning and that was all? Yep, there was a couple of alleys in the early 90's that did this before they bought the machine
Remember trying to pick up the 10 pin with over the top returns? Not sure about this
Remember keeping score with a grease pencil? yep, Mission Bowl had that.
Remember when the lanes were all maple? I think Nieman Lanes had few lanes that were maple, the rest of the lane were a different type of wood because Nieman expanded its building
Remember when one bowling ball was enough? Thought it was enough until i bought an Ebonite Overtime
Remember when soaking a bowling ball for 1 hour was tooooo long? NOpe
Remember when an All Spare patch was more common than a 300 ring/patch? Yeah, my grandpa had a few of those.
Remember when some houses gave a new car for a sanctioned 300? That'd be sweet if they still do that, except this time, perfect series.
Remember the Ebonite Open at Saragota Lanes, when all 16 PBA finalists were left-handed? Nope
Remember bringing your bowling ball in an ice chest to pass the durometer test? I know of the durometer

Am I dating myself? A paradox implosion would occur if i was dating myself

[The Maven]

Soaking a ball in MEK caused it to swell. The legal circumference allowed is 27.002" or as you showed 8.595"
The ring was used before the Durometer came into use.