Before streaming, smartphones, and social media, bowling leagues used to bring people together. And in New England, it was candlepin bowling. Alleys stretched from Massachusetts all the way into Canada’s Maritime Provinces. But it never really caught on anywhere else.

But in Ellsworth, Maine, Autumn Mowery is fighting to keep the candlepin flame flickering.

Asked what the difference is between candlepin and regular bowling, Mowery replied, “Well, this one’s better!”

In short: it’s thinner pins, and smaller balls. And it’snoteasy.

Mowery has been coming to this alley since she was six years old, especially during Maine’s winters. Ellsworth doesn’t boast a lot to do when the days are long and the snow is deep.

At 17, she started working at the alley, not in the front, but in the back, where she became fascinated with the old-world engineering of the pin-setting machines. “I remember my first time going back there, I’m looking up at these machines and I’m like, ‘Whoa, like, this is so cool!’” she said.

They are the beating heart of this place – a ballet of gears and conveyors that would be the pride of any museum dedicated to analogue genius. And when something broke, Autumn risked life and limb to fix it. She’s gotten smacked in the eye with a ball, broken more than a few fingers, and the gears snarl her hair every time they get the chance.

And yet, she treats the machines like employees, even talking to them: “When I’m having a really good day, I will come back here and go, ‘Let’s go! We got this!’” she said.

She came into this family of pins by way of defeat. The previous owner had let the alley fall into the gutter. In 2020, it was set to be bulldozed, until Mowery begged to give her three months. If she couldn’t keep the balls rolling, she said, the owner could take the wrecking ball to all of it. She was just 18 at the time. “The obstacles this place has thrown at me, sometimes I think it doesn’t want me here,” she said.

Shortly after taking over, a storm fried the alley’s wiring, the roof started leaking, and a pipe burst. And then, COVID hit. Not to mention that she was working every single day just to keep the lights on.

Source: CBS News