August is perhaps an underappreciated month. It usually offers unforgivingly hot temperatures, marks the end of kids’ summer vacation, and occurs before the start of college and pro football (ones that count, anyway) games, and before baseball’s pennant races get truly interesting. And, likely its greatest reason for being the Rodney Dangerfield month on the calendar, it provides no holidays.
So, I’d like to take the opportunity to note one of August’s minor observations: August 8 is National Bowling Day. Those of millennial vintage and younger likely don’t realize that bowling was once of the U.S.’s most prevalent pasttimes. However, bowling eventually became perceived as dated, and bowling alleys nationwide have increasingly shuttered nationwide. Some “upscale” operations, such as Lucky Strike, are opening alleys, but they don’t provide quite the same experience as the alleys of yore.
So, in honor of the day, and to remember the freestanding, often Googie-era bowling alley signs of yesteryear before they fade into obscurity, here are several vintage bowling signs (however, sadly, two of the signs identified now-defunct operations).