The Decibel - The lost art of human pinsetting

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

The Globe’s Carrie Tait recently went to visit a bowling alley in the small town of Kimberley, British Columbia. It’s tucked in the basement of the town’s Elk’s Lodge and has a feature that exists in just a few other locations in North America: the pins are set by humans, not machines. It’s a profession from a bygone era but in Kimberley, this bowling alley from the past, is making a comeback.Carrie is on the show to tell us about this unique space, the people who put it together and how the bowling alley is helping to revive a small town looking toward its future.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail]

Come back. Go get some of the cables for the other guy. All right, you watching? Here it comes. Maybe, maybe. This is a bowling alley in Kimberly, B.C. Shazam. They're not even keeping score yet. You got a strike. The Globes' Carrie Tate went to visit it, because it's not your typical bowling alley.

It's like stepping into a bygone era, with its retro-style signs, only two bowling lanes, and mid-century modern decor. But the most unique part of this place is that it employs human pin setters. It's one of the last places in North America that does. But the most unique part of this place is that it employs human pin setters. It's one of the last places in North America that does. It looks like what a bowling alley might have looked like in the 50s. It reminds you that there's a real world out there. It smells all mechanical. It sort of feels like where George Jetson would bowl. This week, we're bringing you the quirky and fun stories from the globe this year. And today, we're going to the bowling alley with Carrie.

We'll meet the very passionate people who revamped this space and hear how this small town in B.C. is attracting tourists by evoking the past. I'm Mainika Raman-Wilms, and this is The Decibel from The Globe and Mail. Carrie, it's so great to have you back on the show. Hi, thanks for having me. So I think we should really just start at this bowling alley. Can you just explain what is it like? Yeah, actually, I'll start a few steps before we get to the bowling alley.

It's in Kimberley, British Columbia. It's on the edge of its downtown core. It's called the Plattsville. It's this walking area. It's kind of like a town square, except, well, in this case, it's a T-shape. The day I was there, it was like rainy and dreary. There's a fountain in the middle. People generally gather there, soak up the sun.

You go to restaurants, that type of thing. Now, the Elks Lodge is on the outer edge of the Platzel. And you have to think of an Elks Lodge sometimes like how you imagine those legions that maybe are a little tired, in need of refurbishment in towns, that type of thing. The Legion, of course, supports veterans. The Elks Club, in this case, it supports the community. So they provide, say, funding for minor hockey, scholarships, that type of thing. So that's why they need money coming in the doors. So you go in the Elks Lodge and you go into the basement rather than the bar upstairs.

Come on in. Hi. Hi, I'm Carrie. I'm Michael. Nice to meet you. Those are my colleagues who are shooting photos for us. Great. Right on. Good. Well, let's go downstairs. I'm going to Nice to meet you. Those are my colleagues who are shooting photos for us. Great. Right on. Good. Well, let's go downstairs. I'm going to get everything ready.

And you open these double doors, and there's two bowling alley lanes of this beautiful hardwood. And it's really out of place because there's no mechanical scoring. There's nothing to set the pins up. And the theme and the colors is all this sort of pink and brown, oranges from like the 1960s, 1970s. It doesn't quite fit in this

mountain town, in this basement of this bar. And the one thing that you mentioned there, it doesn't have mechanical things to set up the pins, right? So tell me about this part because this is kind of part of the charm as I understand it. Well, that's what makes this bowling alley interesting is that it's one of the very few left in North America with human pin setters. Oh, that's one. That's one. What'd I get? You got eight down. Eight? Yeah.

Actual people who are paid real money to set the pins up once the ball knocks it down. So it's a very old school vibe, very retro. And yet that's what makes this thing relevant again is this attraction to this retro chic. Wow. And so how common is it for a bowling alley to have human pin setters, Carrie? Because honestly, I don't think I've ever heard about this before. No, it's not common at all there. From what I could find, there's one on Vancouver Island that still has human pin setters.

There's one in the United States. It's very much a schtick now to have it. You wouldn't build a bowling alley and have human pin setters just for that charm. It's something that you miss the mechanical revolution and now you want to stay relevant. So now it becomes part of your marketing. So it's not something you're going to see across the country. Yeah. So this place sounds like it's pretty unique.

I have to say, Carrie, like this is not exactly the kind of story that you usually cover that we talk to you about. Like usually we're talking Alberta politics, other kinds of things. So I guess why did you want to do this story? What got you so interested here? Well, the reason I was really attracted to this story was because it wasn't what I usually cover and what our readers and our listeners usually read and listen to. We tend to bring people a lot of bad news. When I went to the bowling alley, it was right in the midst of Western Canada's worst fire season. And I had been covering a lot of the fires. And this was just something really to get away from that. And it really is

just a happy story without, you know, a grand purpose. And sometimes we need more of those. All right. So let's go back to the bowling alley, Carrie. And then I'm going to go upstairs and get someone to help me with the lights because I want to put the lights back down here. Were those lights here? Did you find those? No, those were here. This is all original. Those are gorgeous. I know.

No, it's all original. I just went on a scavenger hunt in the building. And the throw cushions are from the ladies' auxiliary up the street. It's the reclamation project. So what they do is take fabric that might go into a dump or whatever and they're so sweet they actually brought down samples for me and they said would you like this I said we have any we said Andy Warhol ish and uh look at the closures on that they want it three dollars each I gave them a lot more than that. So, Carrie, who are we hearing there? Well, that's Michael.

He's the fellow who is the manager of the bar and kind of taking on the bowling effort at the Elks Lodge. And Michael really took it upon himself to be the one to renovate the basement bowling alley, to give it that 1960s, 70s retro chic, the color scheme, the vibe of the signs. So I really wanted something that was Atomic Age. So the Starburst is very classic. I'm an artist, by the way. So I paint on a gallery here in town.

And the Lyrics Hotel down the street, I did the installation in their lobby, that's all of my artwork in there as well. And so for this, and on a shoestring budget, so I'm actually proud of this, I did this for $260. And for me, I collect mid-century modern furniture, and so I really am very familiar with the era. And then, you know, like my, I think my next thing is just because I'm so anal, I have to bring an orange paint, put some orange dots, my thing, because I got orange chairs, not that anyone would ever notice but me. But you want to tie the room together. I want it to be perfect. So I mean, it sounds like Michael, Michael is taking this really seriously, Carrie, like, so you could, I guess, it sounds like Michael is taking this really seriously, Carrie.

So you could, I guess, could you notice this when you were down in that space? Oh, absolutely. This is really a product of his excitement and probably wouldn't exist in its current format without him. This is all part of sort of post-COVID renovations, trying to come up with a way to keep this nostalgia alive. And that's where they came to this idea of embracing the oldness of it, the atomic age, those elements, and marketing that, and making that the attraction. We'll be back in a moment. So the decor sounds amazing there. But of course, that decor is one thing. I feel

like I really want to know more about these human pincetters, though, Carrie. So tell me, did you actually get to meet some of them? Yeah, I did. There's six human pincetters, and I met two of them. They have one in each lane. So the time I was there, there was William and Gwen. And Michael is also as proud of his human pincetters as he is of the decor. He spoke with parents and teachers as he was selecting the teenagers for this job. And Kimberley is a town of about 8,000 people. And so it's not stuffed with, say, fast food restaurants or places where teenagers might work. So the bowling alley creates this part-time opportunity and very part-time because it's not as though it's open all of the time. So

it can be this really ideal, unique teenage job. And how much are they getting paid? This is a job where they actually get compensation, right? It is. So they make minimum wage in BC, it's $16.75. And then they make tips, which can be anywhere between $15 to $50 for, say, their four-hour shift. So it can turn into a pretty good night for a teenager. And we actually do have some tape of you speaking to William, one of the human pin setters, so let's listen to him. What would be your advice to someone who wants to be a pin setter? Um, always keep your legs up. And just, um... And... So his last piece of advice there was don't get hurt.

It sounds like a pretty good job, but that makes me wonder, like, is this dangerous at all, Carrie? Well, you can get hurt. I did speak with, um, actually an old-timer upstairs in the Elks Lodge who told me about the dangers that the pincetters face. Did you, did you get to know the pincetters? Oh, yeah. I knew them all, yeah. Tried to kill one once, but that was okay. I didn't say that. I didn't know he was in the pit when I threw my ball. Yeah. I did the leaping and bounding, hanging on by my thumb and my fingernails. Oh, no. That was one of those things that happened. Don't put that in there.

Oh, don't worry. No one's going to come try to arrest you for that. Thank God. Okay, yeah, so that's the thing. They've got to get out of the pit before someone actually throws the ball then. That's a key part of this. Right. So Gwen and William, all night long, they're sitting up on this bench behind the pins, and they jump in and out of the pit because the ball comes and sends things flying. They jump out and yell which pins got knocked down so they can keep score at the other end.

And then sometimes, and this happened with William, I was chatting with him and, you know, he kind of gets distracted and a ball might be coming or he accidentally set them up when he wasn't supposed to. So you actually do have to pay attention. But for the most part, you set the pins up, jump back up, cross your legs, and then the people at the other end are good to go. Amazing. So let's talk about the people on the other end there. So who are the people who are coming to bowl here? So the night that I was there, it was a group of 11 men who were actually high school buddies, and they go on an annual trip. Most of them were from the United States, actually. They were on a fishing trip. And this was just something that they were doing one night to kill time.

Kimberly, there's not a lot of nightlife. There's not a lot to do after the sun sets. And so this is kind of a place that the manager, Michael, is trying to market as a place you might go if you are in Kimberley, say, on a family ski trip or with your buddies or if you're golfing. Given that there's not a lot to do in Kimberley after hours and it is a place that people come to as a destination, it's something that really has the potential to catch on. So this bowling alley is in this small town, Kimberley. What is Kimberley like? So Kimberley is in the interior of BC. It's in the Kootenays. It was founded as a mining town. It was actually at one time one of the world's largest lead, zinc, and silver mines. The most famous mine there is known as the Sullivan Mine. And that still sort of dominates a lot of the community. That mine only closed in 2001. So not that long ago.

So a lot of the community still reflects that. A lot of the people who are retired there, you can still go on mine tours. One of the main bars in town is called the Sullivan Pub, named after the mine. But it then becomes this community in transition, even though that was 20-some years ago. Kimberley's had to redefine itself. So it did go through a period in the kind of 70s where it latched onto this Bavarian theme. And the platzel that I spoke about earlier was sort of decorated in this Bavarian style. And some of that still exists, but it's really like literally faded and weathered. And so Kimberly has this push and pull of old versus new, as some people want to shift away from

that Bavarian theme and its mining roots and all of that into this sleeker, modern mountain town, a destination for golfers and skiers and active retirees. But there's no denying that a lot of this town is still people who were there when the mine was the dominant feature. So that's how you end up with the Elks Lodge still having still existing and wanting to support the community and then trying to redefine itself as well. Yeah. And you mentioned this kind of shift to maybe some more tourism with this Bavarian theme in the 70s. And funnily enough, there's no actual ties to Germany or Austria. It's just kind of this theme that the town took on. And they also have a cuckoo clock, Carrie. Can you tell me about that? Oh, Happy Hands. Yes. So Happy Hands is in the middle of

the Plattsville. And Kimberly boasts, you know, it pitches it as the world's largest freestanding cuckoo clock. I'm not sure how competitive that category is. But you can put a loony in and Happy Hands comes out and sings. And he yodels. So that's sort of one of the dominant features in the platzel. And that's where you get this idea that, sure, the town might want to move towards this mountain sleekness. But people still, like, put tons of loonies into the cuckoo clock. But if suddenly Hans was missing, you would lose a lot of Kimberly's small town quirkiness.

I mean, we're just we're talking about one specific small town here, Carrie. But I guess I wonder, does this situation in Kimberley speak to a broader idea maybe of transition that other small towns in Canada might also be going through, especially if they were, you know, resource heavy like Hamilton, where you're reinventing yourself as technology changes, as markets change, industry changes. Kimberly, I think, embodies a lot of that because B.C., Alberta, and even in Ontario, whether it's forestry or some type of mining or extraction industry. Towns are in constant flux. So I guess knowing kind of that bigger picture, where does the bowling alley, like the one in Kimberley, where does that fit into this broader picture? Right. And I think that perfectly brings us back to the bowling alley where it does bring this like bite of nostalgia that people are attracted to. The folks that I was talking to that were there that night, they liked that there weren't computer screens everywhere. You either didn't keep score or you did it by hand on the old Brunswick scoring desk or up on the chalkboard, that you had

to yell back and forth with the pin setters to get your score. You know, we're attracted to some things sometimes that are a little bit slower and quieter and unplugged. Carrie, it was so good to speak to you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. That's it for today. I'm Maina Karaman-Wilms. Our producers are Madeline White, Cheryl Sutherland,

and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin. David Crosby edits the show. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pachenza is our executive editor. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll talk to you tomorrow.