IamA bowling alley employer, I'll try answer every question down here AMA!

Have you ever polished your head in the Shine-O Ball-O?

What

Shine O Ball O

Lmao

Answer the question you coward

No we don’t have this machine, we do this type of stuff per hand like in the 70s.

so like this?

No, we polish our balls once a month like this and only clean them after every use.

Joking around with Germans and getting completely stone faced serious answers is the funniest shit ever.

Yes. Germany is great right… right? starts to sweat in the second right

Are there any forms of bowling other than the standard 10-pin that are popular (or even known) in Germany? In certain parts of the US and Canada, we have variants known as Candlepin, Duckpin, 5-pin, etc. Any of those ever played there?

Well the origin of Bowling lays in the German sport „Kegeln“ which was played with 9 pins a different kind of lane and small balls without holes, after WWII Americans took the sport to America and played betting with this game and the US made betting on „Kegeln“ illegal so some people fought about changing the pins count, the lanes and the balls, that’s how bowling was founded.

We have the 9 pin bowling in Texas, apparently brought beee by Germans. Same thing with a smaller ball and whatnot. Never tried it myself cause the 9 pin one you have to be a member of some private bowling club to do.

This sounds sus. Might be underground german history club of some kind 💀

Not at all true, 10 pin bowling was in the US for decades before the end of WW2.

It honestly doesn't even sound true.

Additionally, nine-pin bowling was banned in Connecticut in 1841.

Actually I got a bit wrong. “Kegeln” was imported to the US by german imigrants in the 19th century.

Bowling was brought to the world after the second world war from US soldiers to the world. But the information of the way bowling was founded war right.

Sources: Book

Text abt import export of Kegeln and Bowling

The way bowling was founded

Do you roll on Shabbos?

No I’m a lawfully a Christ but myself am an atheist.

Obviously, you’re not a golfer.

What in the hell am I not seeing here

They want you to watch the movie The Big Lebowski

I’ll maybe Monday, my sleep meds slowely kick in and I need to work when I wake-up till night and „tmrw“(Monday) I’ve school and after that 👍🏼

What in God's holy name are you blathering about?!? (Yes, another quote)

My life is full of best friends/wingman’s betraying me over the same girl over and over again 👍🏼

More importantly, do you allow dogs?

Well, yes and no. If it’s a small dog and the owner knows the owners personally yes. So basically no

Even if it has papers? It's a show dog... you can't leave it at home. Its hair will fall out.

It’s not abt that it’s just a general rule by my employer.

This isn’t Nam, there are rules. Mark it zero.

(This is all from The Big Lebowski)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1BbOZkwWYY0

omfg lmao

Tired of Big Lebowski quotes yet?

Ive to watch this Monday 💀

No and the movie is hilarious!

Do you have 10lb balls?

Yes

Do you have Prince Albert in the can?

No 💀

Are the machines really dangerous if improperly handled, or is that a myth/outdated?

Yes they are, the pins whey actually more then they look like and only by beeing underneath the pins while they get set again can hurt a lot, already happend a few times to me. And if your hands are somewhere there shouldn’t be when the machine moves they could easily crack your bones. And the most dangerous part is drunk guest which you told you’ll go fix the problem on the lane throw a ball while your literally laying underneath the pinsetter on the lane.

If you have enough employees someone should be blocking the lane with a shield. But like most places I bet there's not enough people and it's rush rush.

Mostly I work alone or with one other co-worker on the weekends. On holidays we mostly are three people. Ofc we also have waitresses, but they are at the bar and its not their business.

Who designs the video graphics of a bowling pin scuba diving when I get a spare?

Most likely Brunswick, or a company which works for Brunswick

Do you guys actually clean the balls available to the public? 🤨

(Accidentally deleted) Yes we do, always after the guest group is finished playing with a lanecleaning mix with 1/10 water in it, so the oil gets of the balls. After we bring them back to our ball deposit.

ball deposit

Ahhh somtimes I miss her.

Bro I always do….

Yes, we do after everytime when the group of the lane leaves and bring them back to the „ball deposit“. With clean I mean put a lane cleaning mix 1/10 with water on and cleaning the oil of the ball.

What’s your average?

Average what, score, work hours?

Obviously score

Abt 130, my highest was 180. Not really good but not really bad either, still pretty new to the sport and just started playing with unlinears balls.

What is the craziest or most interesting thing that has happened at your bowling alley?

A famous Partie of Germany came to our alley and booked all lanes and there’ve been famous German politicians

I’ve heard that some bowling centers are using updated machines and pins that don’t sound or behave like traditional pins, what is the push for this technology and how ubiquitous to you think it will be in the coming years?

I think Ik what you mean, our pinsetter has an behavior pattern for example when the pincables get tangled up. The pins will then get dropped fast and picked up slowely so they can get untangled, if they don’t the machine will turn out after 90 seconds and we need to do it manually, but the behavior patterns get bettetet every month so we barely need to untangle them manually anymore.

I think he's talking about introducing string pinsetters at all. In the US bowling alleys traditionally use free fall pinsetters.

Yeah, we only use Stringpin systems since they turned out more reliable for us.

What's so fuckin' special about bowling alleys that I have to wear special shoes?

If you don’t you’ll fall on your nose cuz of the abrupt stop you do when you throw the ball and the center of weight in your body

How’s business been? There’s been talk for years about how competitive bowling is basically dead, and that bowling as a hobby or general form of entertainment has been dying with it. Have you been seeing this yourself?

Well Ik what your talking abt but we’ve a system called Spark from Brunswick which is basically the modern way of bowling, you can search it up on YouTube and watch yourself. And I heard that too but the bowling alley is full almost every weekend so not really.

Alright guy my sleep pills are kicking so I’ll go sleep now, I’ll come back and answer your question tmrw/today again at abt 1pm German time. Have a great morning/afternoon/evening. ^{…^}

What’s your stance on bowling overhanded?

I’m not a fan. The balls break easily, the lane gets damaged easily and they most do this kind of stuff if they are really drunk so they could hurt someone with it aswell.

Has anyone ever run down the lane and slid into the pins with their body?

Well someone ran on it to make a picture and fell, which they deserved because the shoes are garbage after that since the leather bottom don’t recovers from all the oil on the lane

There’s oil on the lane!?

Yes 🇺🇸

How tilted do you get when a drunk bowler rolls a ball in to the thing that sets up the pins?

Well I kick them out because they could literally make me retarded if they hit me

Good call...on that note, what's the most damage some drunk randos have done to the lanes during your watch?

They broke abt 20 glasses, had beer on the floor of basically the whole alley, beer on the leather seats, made all the shoe leather bottom go bad of not only their lane with all the beer on the floor and almost beer on the ordering tablet. We Germans like our beer.

I thought you meant you owned it, I opened the proof and thought "Good for you man, good for you."

Yea I accidentally wrote employer and not employee. My English isn’t perfect sorry abt that

I personally hate the trend of people videoing themselves “accidentally” throwing a bowling ball into the screen/ceiling/wrong lane.

Do you see this often?

Yes

Go to sleep. What is the weirdest thing that happend on a shift?

Grüsse aus Kolumbien

Someone came in, was drunk af, had a German football fan cylinder and wanted to buy slushy powder, we server slushy but don’t sell the raw powder, after that he got mad ran to our pool tables grabbed the white ball of a desk and ran away.

And well I can’t, I’ll wake up 5 mins after in sweat and probably tears

When you say "the newest bowling systems" - what are the differences in the newer systems compared to the older systems?

We’ve a system called sync from Brunswick which connects checkouts, the scoring screens, Tablets to order from the lane and most importantly a projector setup which is called spark which projects animations and interactive games on the lanes, so when a ball rolls on it the projectors capture it and adapt to it or even use the path for interactive games.

Do people sneak in beer in bowling like they do in golf?

Well you can order beer, almost every drink and also food in our alley. They sneak in their own drinks sometimes tho which is forbidden in Germany and an unusual thing to do.

Have you met Angela Merkel?

My mother and a teacher of mine which children I’m friends with both did.

Lol I love the “my proof”

… none needed dog I’ll take your word for it😂

Well there is a reason I’m verified here right.

How are bowlers able to curve the ball like they do? What do they do with their hand when they launch the ball?

There are 2 basic factors. There are 2 kinds of bowling balls, linears and unlinears. Linears have a core shaped like a ball with equal amount of weight everywhere. Unlinears have a core with an unregular shape/weight, you can imagine one side of the ball is heavier then the other, so the ball wants to roll in the way the heavier „side“ is on the floor so it tips over to that side. And the second factor is bringing a spin to the ball in a horizontal rotation.

And with their hand they let the thumb leave the ball and after that they pull up with their ring and middle finger really hard so the ball gets a spin.

String pin setters: abomination on the game or just a horrible invention?

They doing fine most of the time, but when they don’t they are awfull to fix and even more awfull to setup. Because all is done with physical mechanics and not with a computer which would make more sense.

Have you ever seen a perfect 300 score with your own eyes?

Not yet. The highest I saw was 208.

Has anyone ever told you "back to work, shoe bitch?"

No but if it would say a milf or tall girl I would accept it 🪖

Do you have bevears in the back?

This also one of those Lebowski jks?

Dont ruin my childhood ideal that all pins were made by beavers!

Oh right those beavers, we don’t have them in the back, we’ve a zoo kind of area close to our location and we trained them on making pins in trade for major infrastructure plans and resources to build weapons so they can play there own version of bringing American freedom to the beavers on the other river side(they have trees) and also ofc so they can plan out to take over the world.

How many Munson's you come by in your line of work?

Abt 2 every shift.

About 50% of the regulars don’t tip. And mostly about 1/3 of the guest tip and if they do mostly just the last couple pennies they would get back.

Have you seen Niko and Roman at your place often?

This another reference?

At what age did you start to get interested in bowling?

I played as a small child on birthdays, then I forgot abt it but when I started working here it all came back.

This might be the most Reddit-esque question I’ve ever asked in an AMA.

As a little girl, I had an overactive imagination and believed in things like secret passages and magical wonderlands. When I’d go with my cousins to the bowling alley on Saturdays, I used to think that the contraption resetting the pins was concealing an enchanted portal to another world.

Here’s the question…say, little 6 year-old Writer10 managed to sneak back there - what would she have found? And what would have happened if the pins reset while nosing around?

In your magical world or actually?

do you enjoy bowling competitively? or just for fun?

Both, fun with friends and with my co-workers competitively

Is there an actual method to winning at bowling besides for "try to prefect your aim?"

Also what is the craziest experience you had while working?

Perfect your technique and learning to play more consistently.

You only get one: 82/70 or A2?

What

LOL, guess you haven't spent much time behind the pins :)

(AMF 82/70's and Brunswick A2's were the two most common pinsetter machines when I was a bowling center mechanic 30 or so years ago)

Well we have a pinsetter called stringpin, don’t really know if it has a number or name like that, isn’t written down on the pinsetter as far as I know. I’ll look at the machine more closely tmrw/today

How often do you feed the little person that's inside the pinsetter machine?

Not often enough apparently, one machine broke down yesterday. Lmao

Have you ever played duckpin bowling?

Wish Brunswick would start making actual pinsetters for it again instead of the new string pin setter versions showing up in bars.

I played Candlepin for the first time ever recently. Good too but duckpin is where it’s at.

Not that I’m aware of. And yes I’m not the fan of the string pin setters for bowling either

Do your peers also enjoy bowling? Do you give them free passes? or are school bros mean to you?

Yes they do and they aren’t mean, actually the opposite. They respect me of working this young and while beeing in school and basically not having a lot of free time.

I've heard on good authority that an 'alley' is just one lane and really a bunch of lanes is a 'bowling center'. Is that right?

Well you can use both terms, if you see it strictly your right but then I’m working in a bowling center and I would personally say bowling alley is a more guest friendly and in general nicer „name“. We’ve 12 lanes btw

Where do you find your porn these days? Spankbank, Jizztube, Thrusthub? Any vids you wanna share?

bro wrong topic

[deleted]

💀

Why are you posting this at 3 am?!

I have a sleepillness, I’m depressed and I need to do schoolwork, while I do breaks I scroll through Reddit and thought y not post smth.

Glad you did. I hope things get better! :)

Thank you ^{^}

Power to you, and I wish you well! You matter, and your opinions count!

Thank you very much ^{^}