Let’s face it, bowling is not as popular as it once was, Alleys in Springfield, Penn Daw, and  Pickett Road in Alexandria closed over the last few years without much fanfare. An early victim in the decline of bowling was duckpin bowling, a form of the sport that used little pins and a ball that was about the size of a softball, but no finger holes. The alley was a little different too, the ball return was all exposed, and when the little ball got back to the bowler, it went through a little zig zag to slow it down – something Fred Flintstone might have at the Bedrock Alley.

Here the writer, Mike Salmon, holds a ball at the Silver Spring lanes, showing the size of the ball. This was taken in 2012 when he was a little more fit, had more hair, and had the zeal for a duckpin road trip.

 

Duckpins were a little more difficult than ten pins, so there were three rolls in each turn instead of two. The rules are a little different too. All the pins down on the first ball is a strike, with two balls is a spare, but when it takes all three balls to knock all the pins down, it’s just a score of 10.

The name “duckpin” was attached to the sport from the pin action when hit with a well-thrown ball. The pins fly around like a flock of ducks taking off.

The last duckpin alley around here was in Falls Church, and it closed about 20 years ago, but the duckpin crowd in Alexandria fondly remembers an alley in Penn Daw in a building that is now a second-hand store. The original sign is still there, a giant arrow pointing to a bygone era when duckpin bowling was king. Lots of memories surround that building, which will be gone too in a few months to make way for new development.

The chatter on the "We're from Rt.1 .. and this is how we know," Facebook page was busy with reminiscing when duckpins were brought up. Lots of leagues, trophies, music and fun. 

“Went there all the time when I was young and my parents bowled in a league. Loved playing the jukebox at the very end and eating at the grill,” wrote Kimberly Haney Lozada. 

"We used to go there during PE at Walt Whitman Intermediate! I just loved that place. I wish duckpins were still a thing!" said Audrey Dorfman O'Hara. 

Hundreds of responses were similar. "We'd make the ride up from Woodbridge, only Duck pin alley I've ever been to," said Russ Martin, but that was many moons ago, he added. Gerald Taylor was the Tri-State duckpin champ one year, he wrote.

At the duckpin alley in Penn Daw, the juke box hammered out the Beatles, Monkeys and Rolling Stone songs, a popular snack bar and a nursery existed for the youngsters while their parents were bowling in the various leagues. The building now houses a consignment shop but there’s no sign of any bowling operation, not to the naked eye anyways. The owner of the shop did say that years ago, when they moved in, many former bowlers came in to share their stories and she set up a temporary display for their bowler’s trophies, shoes and knick-knacks, but it was only there for a short time. This spring, the shop is moving, the building is being demolished and the development monster is taking over the whole area.

Duckpins Still Afloat

Even though the duckpin alleys in Northern Virginia closed years ago, there is still White Oak Duckpin Lanes in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the sport is still hot in the City of Baltimore. In fact, the Patterson Bowling Lanes, which first opened in 1927, is still open in Baltimore, said Johns Hopkins, the narrator of a Baltimore Heritage video on duckpin bowling. Legend has it, Hopkins said, that duckpin was started by two players from the Baltimore Oriole baseball team sometime in the 1894-1896 timeframe. But then Hopkins unearths a bit of conflicting information that duckpins started in New Haven, Connecticut around the same time. The Duckpin Congress was formed in 1928 as the sport took off. Even Babe Ruth, the sultan of swat, was a duckpin bowler, and there’s a famous picture of him holding a duckpin ball.

Duckpin bowling is reportedly an east coast sport, active in Maryland, Connecticut, West Virginia and the Virginia Beach area of Virginia. According to the National Duckpin Bowling Congress, based in Linthicum, Maryland, Fred Shinnamon was named the duckpin champion in December 2021, and was awarded a blue champion jacket for his efforts.

Blast from the Past is an occasional column that looks into people, places and events in Fairfax Count from earlier times. Have an idea that I could look into? Email me at msalmon@connectionnewspapers.com, Sincerely, Mike Salmon