Ray Davies on 50 Years of 'Lola' https://nyti.ms/2VrUEk4
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Monday, November 16, 2020
After nearly a century, Clifton may lose its last bowling alley ( plus Yogi reference below)
The last strike? After nearly a century, Clifton may lose its last bowling alley
NorthJersey.com
March was the first time in almost 100 years that rollers couldn't find a spot to bowl in Clifton.
Not surprisingly on March 17, the day when the coronavirus pandemic forced most state businesses to close, Garden Palace Lanes was among them, according to the message on the bowling alley's voicemail.
But depending on what happens in the upcoming months, bowling may disappear for good in a city that once boasted four alleys.
A real estate listing has the 16-lane Garden Palace up for sale, with an asking price of $1.3 million for the Lakeview Avenue property.
"Local icon for family recreation since 1941! Modern 16 lane bowling center with full bar and snack bar," reads the listing on RealNex.com, a commercial real estate site. "Could also be suitable for professional & business offices, retail store, service establishments, super markets and auto parts."
Or perhaps a child care center. Officials from the local Boys & Girls Club say they are tentatively interested in the property. The club has seen a rise in interest in after-school programs and has been looking to purchase a property on the east side of the city.
Calls to Garden Palace owner Nationwide Bowling Centers to determine the alley's status were not returned.
If Garden Palace is sold and not reopened as a bowling alley, it would join Astro Bowl (formerly Rizzuto-Berra Bowling), Bowlero and Van Houten Lanes, which closed in recent decades.
The old Van Houten Lanes building, which dates to the early 1920s, is being demolished now. The lanes closed in May 2015 and the property changed hands a couple of times, most recently last November, when it was sold for $700,000 to a Newark-based company, public records show.
The once highly popular Van Houten Lanes bowling alley is being razed to make way for a Dollar General store, city officials said.
"Just what we need, another dollar store," resident Keith Oakley said.
In its heyday in the 1950s and '60s, Van Houten Lanes, just blocks from the Passaic border, drew customers from the surrounding densely populated neighborhood.
There were fewer cars, and neighbors could walk to the local lanes, something Clifton historian Donald Lotz says was key to their success.
"We used to hang there," Oakley said. "I was in a league and my daughter had her first job there, at Abe's Pizza."
Bowling leagues were much more common in that era, too.
Clifton was home to one of the founding members of the Pro Bowlers Association, Chuck Pezzano Sr., who was also a longtime bowling columnist for The Record, now part of the USA TODAY Network New Jersey. His son Craig operated the pro shop at Van Houten.
"But as in everything else, things change," Lotz said.
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Wednesday, April 15, 2020
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Saturday, February 8, 2020
Brandon deWilde - Wikipedia
just watched https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good-bye,_My_Lady_(film) with Brandon deWilde
read down to the Music section
Sunday, January 26, 2020
Inside the sordid Mick Jagger film that horrified Hollywood
much is old news, but maybe not all of it
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