Bowling Pin Boy - A Teen Job That No Longer Exists

By Pamela S. Meyers

Are you a bowler? I haven't bowled for years, and back when I did give it a shot, I wasn't very good. I recall being dubbed the "gutter ball queen" or something similar. That's how bad I was.

Resource: Lake Geneva Regional News;
September 1943

The book I'm currently working on is set in 1943 in my hometown of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and during the story, my heroine joins a women's bowling team. The town's bowling alley at that time was in the basement level of the Hotel Clair which was at the main intersection of town. It's the same bowling alley where I made my famous gutter-ball attempts of the sport. 

By the time I was bowling, the bowling alley used automatic pinsetters, but back in the early to mid-forties pin boys still did the job. The ad at the right is from Lake Geneva's local weekly paper in 1943. Note how it encourages people to have a little fun during the stress of war days. Those alleys are long gone and people bowl at a much newer bowling alley east of downtown, but many memories remain.

The sport of bowling dates back to ancient Egypt in 5000 BC. Over the centuries, variations of the game evolved into what it is today. I'm not sure what they did for pinsetters in 5000 BC, but I do know that back in the early 1900s and likely before that, pinsetters were necessary. Pin boys were usually recruited from the streets, giving disadvantaged boys a chance to earn a bit of money. 

The boys would sit on a ledge behind the pins and after the bowler had bowled their first of two allowed turns, they'd jump down and reset all the pins if the bowler knocked them all down (called a strike), or if there were a few pins remaining (called a spare), they'd leave those standing and collect the others and drop the ball into a return track, giving it a strong shove to send it back to the bowler for their second and last turn. 

Photo Credit: Hine, Lewis Wickes, photographer. 1:00 A.M. Pin boys working in Subway Bowling Alleys, 65 South St., B'klyn, N.Y. every night. 3 smaller boys were kept out of the photo by Boss. Location: New York--Brooklyn, New York State. April. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2018674610/>.

That was how it was done up until the late forties when the first semi-automatic pin-setting machines invented by Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt, became available. The fully automatic machines wouldn't come on the scene until the 1950s and have been upgraded on a regular basis ever since. The semi-automatic machine still required a person to gather the knocked down pins and drop them into a "table" of slots in the familiar triangular arrangement. The operator manually lowered the table to the floor then pulled a lever to cause the pins to turn upright. The table was then lifted and pins were ready for the next bowler. At the same time, the operator dropped the ball into a return slot that sent it back to the bowlers. A bowling alley on Chicago's south side is the only alley around that still uses this system. Here's a link to a YouTube video taken at the bowling alley. You can skip the introductory part and go to about 1.37 to observe the process. https://youtu.be/EKBYDqKpNpU .

Being a pin-boy wasn't easy. An article by former pinsetter states he sometimes came away with broken ribs and lots of bad bruises. Getting smacked by an erratic ball or flying pins happened at times but for a young boy, the pay made it worth the aches and pains. 

By the 1960s bowling alleys began acquiring the automatic pinsetter machines and human intervention became a thing of the past until one of the machines broke down and maintenance was required. And that's how it is today. League nights are incredibly busy with all lanes running and breakdowns sometimes occur, causing the bowlers to take a timeout.

Are you a bowler? Did you ever bowl on a league? 

Pamela S. Meyers loves to set stories set in historical-rich Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, her hometown. Safe Refuge and Shelter Bay, books 1 & 2, of her historical series are available now and Tranquility Point, Book 3 is due to release in April. She is currently working on Rose Harbor, the fourth and final book of the series. She lives in Northern Illinois with her two rescue cats, a short distance from Lake Geneva where she can often be found nosing around for new story ideas.

Tre Brah - Home of a 21st Century Woman Living in the 19th Century

By Pamela S. Meyers


For our August visit to the shores of Geneva Lake in Southeastern Wisconsin we walk from the eastern shore of Williams Bay to the western shore, passing by the public beach and dock This is where, during summer, many lakeshore residents of the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century were met by their private yachts when they disembarked at the train station across the road. Many of the men worked in Chicago and at week’s end, took the train out to the "country" to spend weekends with their families.

East is to the right and West to the left. The markings indicate many of the homes I've featured on this blog.

You will see on the map that the lake vaguely resembles the shape of a leg and foot. The location of the town of Lake Geneva is in the toe and the inlet known as Williams Bay is the projection almost to the most western point of the lake. Last month we visited the home of E.B. Meatyard which sat the point the inlet that begins on the east side, and now we are heading across the norther border of the bay and up its west shore to the home known as Tre Brah.

Relatively speaking, the home appears to be much smaller than many of the large mansions we’ve visited, but it’s owners more than make up for the size of the home. And in particular, the lady of the home, Elizabeth Boynton Harbert.

Born into an Indiana family of substance, Elizabeth had been “properly” educated at the Western Female Seminary, that was affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Despite its name, the school was basically a finishing school. Most young women went no further in their education at such a school, having been prepared for being the lady of the home and dealing with her societal duties. But, Elizabeth wanted more education and enrolled at the Terre Haute Female College, since the nearby Wabash College only admitted men. It was here that she became drawn to the rising Woman’s Suffrage movement

taking place in the Midwest.

A fact I found of great interest, since I’m a novelist, is that, in addition to her strong interest in women’s suffrage, she was also a novelist and penned three novels in her lifetime.

She met her husband when he was a student at Wabash College in 1860. They wouldn’t marry until ten years later after the Civil War. By the time of her wedding she had served as the vice president of the Woman’s Suffrage Association of Indiana, and when they moved to Iowa after the wedding, she became president of that state’s association, and lobbied hard for the state Republican party to include women’s rights in their platform.

From that time forward she became a well-known name in Woman’s Suffrage and when her husband accepted a position in Chicago, the people affiliated with the movement in Iowa suffered quite a blow. Of course, once settled in Illinois she became involved in the Illinois suffrage movement. All the while, over the years she birthed several children.

In 1874, the Harberts purchased the property on Williams Bay and built the home they named Tre Brah (their last name spelled backwards) and spent every summer there for 31 years. They entertained many guests at Tre Brah, including sorority sisters of their daughters and Mr. Harbert, who had a strong interest in intellectual conferences, hosted several of them at the property.

In their older years the couple followed one of their daughters and her husband to Pasadena, California and settled there. Outside of a little participation in the suffrage movement and politics, they considered themselves retired. Will died before the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution was passed, but Elizabeth did live to see the fruit of her many years of labor come to bloom

You can read much more about this fascinating woman at the Boynton-Harbert Society website from which I drew some of this information.

A broad variety of people were attracted to beautiful Geneva Lake, from back before the Civil War and right up until today.I am blessed to have grown up there and able to share these different home stories with you.

Resources:  Lake Geneva Newport of the West, Ann Wolfmeyer and Mary Burns Gage, 1976

Boynton-Harbert Society Website, http://www.elizabeth-boynton-harbert.com

A native of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, author Pamela S. Meyers lives in suburban Chicago with her two rescue cats. Her novels include Thyme for Love, which has recently been re-released on Amazon and her 1933 historical romance, Love Finds You in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Love is All We Need (the sequel to Thyme for Love) will release in 2016, and Second Chance Love from Bling!, an imprint of Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, will release in January 2017. When she isn’t at her laptop writing her latest novel, she can often be found nosing around Wisconsin and other Midwestern spots for new story ideas.