Kosher Strike!
By: Larry Gordon
Three young men from the neighborhood decide to buy a bowling alley—no, that’s not the start of some joke. It’s a true story and I met the three people who recently bought Woodmere Lanes at 948 Broadway in Woodmere. And while I haven’t checked with ChatGPT, this might be the first glatt kosher Shomer Shabbosbowling emporium in the history of bowling.
Woodmere Lanes is a gathering point and a real hot spot for families from around the 5 Towns and is more attractive than ever before for a variety of reasons. One of them is the Backstage party room that is easily transformed into a ballroom type facility to handle everything from a bris to a sheva berachos that can include bowling or not.
It’s important to note that the food at Woodmere Lanes is under the strict supervision of the 5 Towns Vaad, while the kashrut in the party room can be overseen by whichever hashgachah your caterer uses.
As a teen, I used to go bowling with friends in Brooklyn and it was always both competitive and fun at the same time. Frankly, once upon a time, keeping a proper score while you went bowling required some mathematical acumen. Let’s see if I can recall how to do this: if you knock down all the pins, that constitutes a strike or 10 points on your score card and so on down the line (or down the lanes as the case may be).
Nowadays, you just bowl and the in-house computers at each bowling station keep the score for you. You don’t need a calculator or even a pencil with an eraser as we once did.
If it takes two throws of the bowling ball down the lane to knock down all the pins, then it’s scored as a spare with you totaling the number of pins that your ball managed to knock over.
In retrospect, after all those years and strikes along with spares, it looks like bowling is really about being together with family and friends and now with the new Woodmere Lanes, it’s also about lunch or dinner together, with great food and maybe even some music.
The 20 lanes with the new lighting and large screen TVs posted above the lanes so you can watch either football or baseball while bowling is a sportsman’s dream come true.
Right now, the new owners and managers of Woodmere Lanes say that it’s quiet during the weekdays, but the lanes come to life at night—every night of the week. As for next week’s long and extensive chol ha’moedobservance, bowling is going to be a priority that is up there along with eating in a sukkah and shaking your lulav and esrog.
To many, bowling represents great family fun and that is especially true during different times of the year, with chol ha’moed Sukkos and Pesach at the top. Another time during the year when bowling is a fun and entertaining option is visiting day in upstate New York when you can’t figure out what to do with your kids before returning them to camp.
Given how big bowling is upstate, you can rest assured that next summer, once the local day camps are open, bowling will be a top priority for many camps.
I think most of us have different kinds of bowling stories that we’ve collected over the years. Almost everyone has a friend from yeshiva who can bowl what might be called a perfect game, which means ten frames of strikes, which is an extraordinary accomplishment.
I was telling the guys from Woodmere Lanes that when I was a teen, I used to bowl with my friends at a bowling alley on Bedford Avenue near the old Ebbets Field (if you don’t know what that is you can Google it). A few lanes away from us was what appeared to be a blind man playing with his Seeing Eye dog sitting near the scorer’s table. The fact that the man was blind is not the entire story.
The kicker is that he was able to tell how many pins he’d knocked down based on the sound the pins made when they clattered against each other and against the pit. “That’s seven,” he’d say, or “That’s a strike!” when all the pins went down.
Bowling is a nice, clean, no-contact sport. It’s competitive, but you rarely get hurt bowling. I mean you can pull your shoulder or perhaps chip a nail if you consider that an injury. Mostly it’s a fun sporting event that you can do with family and friends.
Woodmere Lanes has been on Broadway since what seems like the beginning of time. But now it’s different. The food is glatt kosher and the bowling emporium is closed on Shabbos. That’s what sets it apart more than anything else. It’s one of the little things that we sometimes take for granted but we really shouldn’t. It’s long overdue and exciting too. And next week during chol ha’moed there will be a sukkah on the premises so you can enjoy lunch or dinner in style and in a sukkah. It doesn’t get better than that.
The next time your children say, “Let’s go bowling” or “Let’s go out to eat,” the answer to both is Woodmere Lanes.
Woodmere Lanes is the perfect setting for parties and celebrations of all kinds. The party room can be set up for a child’s birthday party or even a Shabbos Kiddush, though there’s no bowling on Shabbos—just Kiddush.
We should add that for day, night, and weekend bowlers, there’s a fully stocked bar that can make bowling with your friends and family even more enjoyable.
So, as you can see, Woodmere Bowling can make it all happen for your family in the best way possible. Oh, I didn’t mention bowling shoes. Sure, to bowl properly and to make sure your feet have a good traction on the floor and a professional grip, it’s imperative to find the right size bowling shoes to assist your game.
What about selecting the proper bowling ball so you can play your best game? Of course, at first grip, those bowling balls are heavy. But somehow after a few minutes and a couple of practice shots, you hit your stride and you’re ready to play.
So, let’s be thankful for the great changes at Woodmere Lanes—let’s play ball and have dinner or both. Chag sameach. n
Read more of Larry Gordon’s articles at 5TJT.com. Follow 5 Towns Jewish Times on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for updates and live videos. Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome at 5TJT.com and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
