Bowling's family side: the Parkway houses, and the alley that became a rink

THE FAMILY COURSE · THE 1950S TO 2004 · LEAGUE BOWLING BELONGS TO SPORTS

League bowling — the teams, the records, the March 1914 league the sports record already holds — belongs to the sports leg. What belongs here is the other half of the game's life in Mishawaka: the bowling house as a family house, the place a child learned the game from a grandfather who had built the lanes. That record stands on two houses named Parkway, and one named Regal, and it is unusually well voiced, because the Tribune wrote the houses' family story twice — at a closing and at a record — within a year.

Parkway West was the old house. When it closed in 2001, the Tribune headlined the story "Last strike" and called it a long-time home for Mishawaka bowlers, closed after 45 years; its owner, Bill Baize, consolidated his bowlers at his Parkway Lanes East on North Chestnut Street, which remained open. The closing story carries the West house's founding generation by name: Clarence Hoose was one of the original owners, and Pete Rice its first manager. It also carries a conflict, printed whole: the Tribune illustrated the story with a photograph of five Parkway West bowlers — Hoose and Rice among them — "believed to have been taken at Parkway West Bowling Alley in the 1940s." Forty-five years ending in 2001 opens the house about 1956; a Parkway West photograph of the 1940s cannot stand with that arithmetic. Either an earlier house bowled under the Parkway name on the West side before the 45-year house, or the caption's date is a decade loose. The record reached does not settle it, and both statements stand here as the Tribune printed them.

Parkway East is the documented house: built in 1961, and built by a family. When the Tribune returned to the Parkway lanes in 2002 — on the occasion of a city team record, whose numbers belong to the sports record — the bowlers' own testimony fixed the house's founding and its meaning in one sentence. Of the five men who rolled the record, Keith Termont's grandfather built Parkway East in 1961: "My family owned the bowling alley where I learned to play," Termont said. "I grew up with Chad and Jason. We've known each other since we were 5-years old." The house stands at 1504 Chestnut Street with 24 lanes — it serves in the present record as the home lanes of Bethel University's bowling programs, the collegiate use stated here at pointer size as a closing fact about the building, the competition itself belonging to sports.

The third house closes the set by changing trades: the Regal Bowling Alley, on West Eighth Street, is the building the skating entry of this record follows into its second life as the city's roller rink — one Mishawaka building that served the two great indoor family pastimes of the century in succession. And the form's own succession is dated: in 2004 the Tribune's opening story — "Bowled over" — announced Strikes and Spares, a new bowling house in the former Spiece building at Grape and Douglas roads (5419 Grape Road), built not as an alley but as an "entertainment center," with touch-screen scoring and synthetic lanes, its owners hoping its sleek design would separate it from the older alleys. The entertainment center is the subject of the next entry; the bowling fact stands here — that by 2004 the family bowling house no longer opened alone, but as the anchor of a building full of other fun.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, 2001 — "Last strike: Long-time 'home' for Mishawaka bowlers closes after 45 years": Parkway West's closing, Bill Baize's consolidation to Parkway East on North Chestnut Street, Clarence Hoose among the original owners, Pete Rice the first manager, and the photograph captioned as Parkway West bowlers of the 1940s (ProQuest Tribune archive, catalogue records).
2. South Bend Tribune, 2002 — "Mishawaka bowlers keep record in family": Parkway East built in 1961 by Keith Termont's grandfather, and the bowlers' testimony (ProQuest Tribune archive, catalogue record). The record itself is carried in the sports record.
3. Bethel University, venue record — Parkway Lanes, 1504 Chestnut Street, 24 lanes, home of Bethel's men's and women's bowling programs.
4. South Bend Tribune, 2004 — "Bowled over: New bowling center hopes to wow customers with innovations": Strikes and Spares in the former Spiece building, 5419 Grape Road (ProQuest Tribune archive, catalogue record).