Moonlight Mania : When Lights Dim, Bowling Balls Start to Roll for Fun and Profit

At 8 p.m., the sun was setting over Spring Valley. The parking lot of the Golden Bowl was almost packed. Inside, bowlers by the dozen were lining up for the start of Moonlight Bowling.

“Is everybody ready?” boomed the golden-throated emcee on the public-address system. “All right then, let’s goooooo !”

The lights went out, and the games began.

“You betcha, I’m gonna win me some money tonight!” said Shelly Dahle, 24, who handles claims for an automobile insurance company.

Money is what Moonlight Bowling is all about. Dahle, who lives in Santee, calls it “practical entertainment” for a blue-collar crowd that in 1989 sees ballgames, movies and eating out as “luxuries” they can scarcely afford.

The moonlight variety of bowling, which occurs at alleys all over the county (indeed, throughout the United States) is enjoying a “vast resurgence,” said Don Silver, owner of the Golden Bowl.

The reason, in Silver’s view: A trickle-down economy isn’t trickling down to the folks who hunt for fun and fellowship on the lanes of the Golden Bowl. Silver said California’s high cost of living is sending bowlers by the droves to his alley on Campo Road, just off California 94.

“It’s getting too expensive to afford other forms of entertainment,” he said. “They’re becoming the province of the upper classes or at least the upper-middle class. Bowling is something a lot of folks can still afford, and, after a hard week of work, people need a night out. At least one .”

The added incentive is that Moonlight Bowling lets you win money without having to spend a week’s salary to play. You won’t win a lot, Dahle and her teammates concede, but it’s enough to break even and feel good after “a cheap night out.”

The games work this way: After everyone checks in and signs up with a team, the lights go off at Silver’s command. Only the pins are lit, revealing some as red, yellow, blue and gold. Knock down certain pins, and you win cash prizes--$1 here, 25 cents there, maybe $5 if you hit the gold. Other bonuses offer men’s or women’s jackpots. Hit one of those--such as nailing seven strikes in a row, as one bowler did on a recent Saturday night--and you might win several hundred dollars. (The pot was a little down that night, so he won $95.)

The mood was set at the start, after the lights went out. The first set of bowlers was asked to roll the ball while lying on the floor. Next, they were asked to bowl with their backs turned to the pins. They had to roll the bowling ball from between their legs, like a center hiking it to a quarterback.

Then the serious stuff started, five to a lane. Teams were made up of what appeared to be an equal number of men and women. Some were teen-agers, others grandmothers on Social Security. At least one was an ex-professional, and plenty were couples who smuggled in infants who dozed in car seats as the balls crashed the pins and loud adult voices whooped and hollered at every mild victory.

Karrlyn Van Vooren, 46, is a secretary at an El Cajon body shop. She shows up every week for Moonlight Bowling. She says it’s too expensive to go to movies anymore, and she’s referring to the outdoor kind.

“You can’t get into a drive-in with a carload of kids for less than $15,” she said. “So it’s cheaper to stay home and watch the VCR. But gosh, you get tired of that. So, we go Moonlight Bowling.”

Suzan White, 32, who showed up with her 2-month-old son, admitted that “the gambling aspect” is what draws her to the lanes.

“I come every Saturday night, without fail,” she said. “You try to make back as much as you spend, but for me, even that’s a thrill. With expenses the way they are, it’s a free night out. You can’t beat that. Last week, I came out $13 in the black. And I got to tell you, it’s something I look forward to all week long. It’s one of the few things I can take the baby to.”

White also engages in Moonlight Bowling at Frontier Lanes in Loma Portal. Frontier is the county’s only 24-hour bowling alley.

Laurie Brown, 25, an accounting clerk who lives in Spring Valley, said some of the alleys that serve as hosts for Moonlight Bowling offer Gold Bond or Blue Chip stamps instead of cash.

“We hate that,” she said. “It’s such a hassle, having to fill up those books with stamps and mail away for prizes. Here, you come and you get your money right away. It’s a lot of fun.”

Obviously, Moonlight Bowling has reached other corners of the country. David Kirkland, 21, who was at Golden Bowl on Saturday night, said he’s a regular in his hometown of Ft. Worth, Tex. He was visiting friends and picking up what he called “spare change . . . literally.”

A Popular Trend

Silver, the proprietor, said Moonlight Bowling has come back into vogue largely because of operators giving up the stamp concept in exchange for cash. He sees bowling as a trend not just among the blue-collar crowd but among yuppies as well.

He believes his alley is popular, partly because it’s one of the few mom-and-pop operations left in the county--most bowling centers are run by chains--and partly because it’s the only one left that has manual scoring. All others have resorted to computerized score-keeping.

Dennis Fitzsimonds, 48, is a sales representative for an electronics firm, a Spring Valley resident and a faithful attendee of Moonlight Bowling. Fitzsimonds also is an ex-professional whose average hovers between 208 and 225. He and partner Ken Racette bowl in competitive leagues in which the prizes go as high as $5,000. He likes Moonlight Bowling for its “low-brow ambiance” and zany moments, which he said the “hard-core” leagues sadly lack.

“Believe it or not, one of the reasons I think this thing is so popular is the aspect of turning the lights out,” he said. “A lot of people are shy about a lot of things, bowling being no exception. By turning the lights out, it seems to loosen folks up and do away with shyness. People hit a spare or strike, win a quarter or two, and all of a sudden, they’re into it.”

Dorothy Olson, 71, is a “moonlight junkie” who finds an alley every Saturday where she can feed her addiction. She took several friends with her to Spring Valley on Saturday night. She won $20 recently at a Moonlight Bowling event in Las Vegas and was still talking about it at Golden Bowl.

“I’m a champ,” she said matter-of-factly.

Dahle, the auto-insurance worker, who hears “a lot of bitter voices” during the week, said Moonlight Bowling is of deeper sociological relevance than mere fun.

“We need low-cost, tension-reducing forms of recreation,” she said, “and we don’t have many anymore. Everything is getting so outrageously expensive. Sometimes, I think there’s going to be a revolution in America--everybody seems so unhappy, so angry. There’s a lot of frustration. But, with Moonlight Bowling, you come out, you win a little money--or not lose too much--and you go home happy. And nowadays, that’s worth a lot.”