After many years of small bowling alleys in Liverpool, the early 1960s saw the building of 2 modern bowling centers. Bowl More Lanes was constructed under the new Liverpool IGA grocery store and Mersey Lanes was constructed on Payzant Street. Both bowling centers were built in the early 1960s but Mersey Lanes had it's own nursery for small children, a banquet room, changing room, air conditioning and the newest thing for both bowling centers was automatic pin setters. Before this, the older bowling alleys used pin boys where local guys could set up the pins for a few cents. (My uncle Robert McDonald was a pin setter at the King Pin Bowling Alley (where Pharmachoice is located on Main St) and it was not an easy job. You could get all of the pins set up and the last one could fall and knock down the ones already standing and you'd have to start over. Plus you stayed above the pins so the balls were being thrown in your direction and with the pins flying around I'm sure the pin boys didn't feel safe sometimes.) Mersey Lanes was owned and operated by Ike Seaman and his wife Kathleen worked at the lunch counter. My grandmother learned to bowl here and she said it was a beautiful bowling alley and was sad to see it close. Doug Bent Sr bowled here and my grandmother said he was one of the best bowlers back in those days. With 2 bowling alleys in such a small town, one was destined to close and it was Mersey Lanes that shut down after just a few years. The building was later used for TRA Foods, a food distribution company and that is what I remember being in the location in the 1970s. TRA closed and the building was purchased by Eugene Ingram. Frenchy's was there at one time but for the last years it has been vacant. |
| Liverpool Advance November 15,1962 |
Hey this was before my time. I never even knew about this until recently when you were having a discussion on FB about something else. Would be nice if someone bought that building and did something with it. It is a huge building. You could have an indoor pool in there!!!!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea there were that many bowling alleys in Liverpool. Love reading your blogs Tim! : )
ReplyDeleteThe building is up for sale now but its not vacant, I still have an office in there, C. Eugene Ingram Const. Ltd.
ReplyDeleteMy memory gets fuzzy but I think that Mersey Lanes was owned for a while after Ike Seaman by Mr. Schmidt who was the original owner of Transcotia Motel. The one son Lloyd graduated with me in 1969 from LRHS.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad, Jack Veinot, was the manager there! Mom said they were married around 2 weeks when they went out of business. Love all the stories Tim!
ReplyDeleteI remember Mersey Lanes...did a little bit of bowling there, but I was just young. It was a nice bowling alley...as Heather said, it would be a great place for an indoor pool.
ReplyDeleteHugh....I remember the Schmidts and I think they also had a son around my age but I can't remember his name...perhaps I'm wrong, it could have been Lloyd but something tells me there might have been a David Schmidt. My mind is a little fuzzy too.
I don't recall the other bowling alley that was on Main Street, it was either before my time or I was too young to remember.
They also had other activities there such as Majorett leasons. I remember taking those classes right next to the bowling lanes. I want to say the teachers name was Donna. I have a picture I'll have to find and post. Had lots of fun there.
ReplyDeleteI also went to Majorette lessons there. The daughter of the instructor was in my class when they moved here but I don't think they stayed long.
ReplyDeleteJohnny Fortunata worked at Mersey Lanes, I thought as manager but maybe as something else. Johnny had been a professional umpire in the United States but when he found the pressure too much he came to Nova Scotia through his connections to my father Len Pottie, who owned the Halifax Capitals in the late 40's early 50's and to Dannie Seamen and the Larrupers. These were the pro/am days of baseball in NS and Johnny umped here. Hence his connection to Ike and the Seamen family. I recall that Ike was a terrific ball player. Johnny Fortunanta had a very strong accent and "a face only a mother could love". We were always afraid he would tell on us for wearing make-up and hanging around boys. Actually I think he did tell on us. Nobody else in the world bowls candlepin like we do here in the Maritimes and I just don't get that stuff with the big bowling balls and 5 pins.
ReplyDeleteIn the early 60's, half of the building was a bowling alley and the other half was used for banquets, teen dances and the like. I remember two dances, in particular, there... Memory #1 was sitting in the parking lot beside the building one night and helplessly watching while some unlicensed lady driver who was trying to take her drunken boyfriend home backed into the side of my Dad’s car then took off. I caught up with them but they disappeared and never paid for the damage repair. Memory #2 was a New Year's Eve dance in 1965…
ReplyDeleteI also set pins in the King Pin bowling alley on my lunch hour from school. I remember being paid fifteen cents for the 45 minutes of risking injury from flying pins. Jack Hadskis was the best bowler I can remember at that time.I then put the money I made into the pinball machine at Danny Seamans store on the way back to school, where I always arrived with empty pockets.
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