Grit and community support helps brighten outlook for 71-year-old Vancouver bowling alley

Rachael Allen says business is booming these days at Allen’s Crosley Lanes, a Vancouver bowling alley that her family has owned for nearly four decades. The Columbian’s recent profile of Allen and Crosley Lanes helped remind readers that the 71-year-old bowling alley is not only still around, but today thriving. That’s despite a couple of close but ultimately failed attempts Allen and her husband, Don, had made since 2018 to sell the business due to his declining health.

Don died last May, and a few months later, Allen decided to throw a party at Crosley Lanes to honor his memory and celebrate the bowling alley’s 70th anniversary. She credits the community’s turnout and its continued show of support for renewing her faith in the business as an investment worth keeping and handing over to her son and daughter someday.

Allen joins us to talk about Crosley Lanes, its history and the loyal patrons who are helping it endure.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. The Columbian newspaper reminded its readers recently that Allen’s Crosley Lanes is still in business. In fact, owner Rachael Allen says business is now booming at the Vancouver bowling alley her family has owned for nearly four decades. It’s not to say that she hasn’t dealt with some major challenges. A few different attempts to sell the business fell through at the last minute. COVID shutdowns were a major blow. And Rachael’s husband Don died a year ago.

But Rachael and her kids and grandkids are persevering, and Rachael Allen joins me now. It’s great to have you on Think Out Loud.

Rachael Allen: Hi, thank you.

Miller: I want to start with some sounds and some voices from your bowling alley. Our new producer Malya Fass went there on Monday night to talk to some of the people who were bowling and working there, and she made us this audio postcard.

[Audio recording playing, with bowling sounds in the background]

Annie DeKlyen: It’s hard sometimes to get out of bed on Mondays, you’re at work and you’re kind of dragging, and it’s like, “Oh! Wait! I get to bowl after work!” It gives you just something to look forward to.

Background Voice: Hey, I got this!

DeKlyen: I am secretary of the Monday Night League here. I have been for 10 years. When we first heard that they were selling the lanes, everybody is just heartbroken. We’re like, “oh my gosh, if we could win the lottery, we would love to buy the place and keep it going.” It’s important to have these kind of things, these places where people can go and hang out. I just think it gives you purpose to come. There’s Coach here, he’s in his eighties, he’s coached all over the world.

John “Coach” Fantini: I’m known as a coach. My nickname here is “Coach.” I started working here in 1960. It’s like a home. Well, I’ve been bowling since I was 11 years old – that’s 77 years. And I liked sports when I was young. But when I went in the Air Force, I was 5′5, weighed 117 pounds. Trust me, the football coach wasn’t looking for me. Bowling, size didn’t matter.

Merissa Hentz: I like how I felt welcomed here. I’m a porter, and the porter, what they do is they get the pins out of the gutters if there’s anything back … The bowling alley is pretty old, so some of the machines are kind of slow. It gives 1980 vibes. I mean, I wasn’t born in the 1980s, but if I were, I feel like this would be it. It’s a very homey feeling here.

Sean Hauff: If you wanna find out a little bit about the town, you go to the local bowling alley. You got anybody from custodians, to lawyers, to moms and dads, juniors. Everybody comes to the bowling alley. I would be hard pressed to move someplace where there isn’t someplace local like this. I met the mother of my child here. I’ve met some of my best friends here. I couldn’t imagine where my life would be without this place at this point.

[Recording ends]

Miller: That was Annie DeKlyen, John “Coach” Fantini, Merissa Hentz and Sean Hauff. Rachael, what was going through your mind as you heard those voices?

Allen: Oh … just humble and grateful. I’ve had a lot of people tell me a lot of that. “Please don’t go. We love it here. We’re so comfortable.” So it’s nice to hear. And I know a lot of people that met their significant others at Crosley. I met my husband, Don, at Interstate bowling juniors. So I know that feeling.

Miller: That was a bowling alley in North Portland that I loved, that closed, I don’t know, 16 years ago?

Allen: About 2016, we closed.

Miller: That your family owned, even well before Crosley’s, right?

Allen: Oh yes, that Interstate was the second Interstate Lanes. And my parent-in-laws, my mother-in-law and father-in-law, started Parkrose Lanes in ‘55 with his World War II GI grant. And then they built the next Interstate Lanes, so they had two. He closed both of those to buy out his dad, who was his partner at the time, and he and his wife Phyllis then built Interstate Lanes from the Asthma Nefrin Building. They turned it into a bowling center.

Miller: Can you describe the bowling alley that you run now, and have for a number of years, Allen’s Crosley Lanes. We heard that one line from that young woman who says it has ‘80s vibes, “not that I was alive in the ‘80s.” How do you describe it?

Allen: It’s classic. We’re not Fred Flintstones old [Laughs], but we’ve been around since ’55. It was a Coca-Cola bottling factory and it got turned into a bowling center. They added lanes. They started with 18 and kept adding lanes, up to 42. It’s just been a staple of Vancouver forever, it seems like.

Miller: We wanted to talk with you after we read that recent article in The Columbian that I mentioned, but I understand that you’re still feeling the effects of an earlier Columbian article back from 2018. So what did that earlier article say?

Allen: Well, we were for sale. We had a deal in place. But we didn’t want the word to get out because it wasn’t a done deal. And anybody that’s done business deals like that knows that until the ink is dry, it can go away. And that is exactly what happened. It did get leaked that we were sold, not selling, and we were kind of confronted with that this was going to come out, and if you want to have something to say about it, you need to do it. And we tried, and the article did reflect that. It said, “It’s not imminent, but it could happen.”

Miller: The article was accurate.

Allen: It was accurate.

Miller: But how did people read it?

Allen: They read not all the words, I guess. They interpreted it as that it was over. There’s only so many lanes in Vancouver in Clark County and we lost a lot of lanes in Portland houses. So I think people took it as, “we got to find out where we’re going to bowl next,” because next season is coming. So except for Annie, everybody left, from the juniors to the seniors.

Miller: In terms of leagues. How important are leagues for the bottom line of a bowling alley?

Allen: Well, they’re very important. They provide a steady income, in that they’re there every week. Most standard leagues last 32 to 35 weeks in a season. We found it pretty hard to get people to commit to that much time. There’s so many activities now. So, we now run our leagues 12 to 15 weeks and we’ve had great success with that. They have two to three weeks off to go enjoy themselves, and then they have to come back, and they start again. And they do! It just repeats. So, we like having that.

Miller: I mentioned that you’re actually doing better now than you have for a while. How do you explain that?

Allen: I would say significantly, because before last year – and we had a big birthday party, it was Crosley’s 70th birthday party – almost daily, we would have someone either come in or call and say, “I thought you guys closed years ago. I read the article. You guys aren’t here.”

Miller: Even last year, you were still having the holdover effects of people misreading an article from 2018?

Allen: Yes. But they were so glad. They go, “Oh, I’m so glad you’re still here! I’m sorry, I’ll come more. I’ll come back.” So we had the birthday party and that really catapulted it. And ever since then, from September to, say, April – the rainy season is when people want to be indoors – it could be just wall to wall. I would just stand in the lobby and just be amazed. How’d that happen? They’re back. They heard.

Miller: It wasn’t just that article that people misread and then a sale that fell through, in that time was also COVID and forced closures. What was COVID like for you as a business owner?

Allen: Well, to start with, COVID was heartbreaking because five days before we got closed down by the governor, we were approved for brand new pinsetters.

Miller: Pinsetters, an expensive machine that grabs the fallen pins and sets them down in that nice triangle?

Allen: Yes, exactly. But it was a whole new setup. It was string pins, it was new bumpers, new point-of-sale system. It was the whole package.

Miller: Can you give me a ballpark figure for how much you were going to spend?

Allen: It would have been then about $750,000 for 42 lanes.

Miller: So you were about to make a major capital investment for the future.

Allen: Well, we had deals fall through and then we decided “OK, we’re gonna stay. Let’s try to do this.” And of course, nobody knew COVID was coming. We got approved, five days later we got shut down, and then the banks were like, “We need to wait and see how this goes.” And in the meantime from COVID, we’re getting loans and everything, the EIDL loans and the PPP loans, trying to stay afloat.

And of course then COVID was over, but then we still had the debt. So we tried to sell again. It fell through. OK, we’re going to stay, let’s try to get the pins again. And the banks just said, “no, you have too much COVID debt.” But we’ve made it! So many businesses didn’t and had to close, we came through it. And they were still like, “nah, we can’t do it.”

Miller: But now, here you are and people are bowling again.

Allen: So we just kept going. We’re still for sale, but I have no offers, there’s nothing on the table. And we’re so successful right now that it’s almost like, well, why would I sell? But I learned after the last eight years, I don’t make too many plans in stone. It’s too easy for things to change. Our family motto is “Allens don’t quit and we’re in it to win it.” So I’ve got myself and my kids and my grandkids, and we’re just going to keep going until we hear something different.

Miller: I mentioned at the beginning, your husband. A number of people who our producer Malya talked to mentioned him, and I want to play a short clip of one of those. This is a bowler and league secretary Annie DeKlyen talking about the memorial that you mentioned that happened about a year ago.

DeKlyen [recording]: It was really touching. I’ve been around for about 10 years. Some of the people who have worked here and have retired now, and they came back, and not having seen them for a while and just seeing just different members of the community. And it wasn’t necessarily bowlers that came, but they’ve been here for a really long time, and just all the people that they’ve touched, and people that just want to help here and help Rachael.

Miller: Can you tell us about your late husband?

Allen: We met, I was bowling juniors at Interstate and he was working the front desk. I had been there for months and I never saw him. I went up one day to get change, and he slapped my change on the counter and kept his hand on it until I would look up at him. And I finally looked up at him and he goes, “Hi.” And I said, “Hi.” We were together from that day on.

Miller: How old were you both at that point?

Allen: I was 14 and he was 19ish. [Laughter]

Miller: You ran the bowling alley together for decades. What was the division of labor like? What did you do and what did he do?

Allen: He was the money guy, he had all the connections. He knew everybody, all the bankers, the lawyers, and the school people that he met and started up all the programs for the in-school bowling with the elementary kids. He made the connections with the coaches for the high school girls bowling that started. And he and our daughter Amanda, she was one of the first kids on that and got it going. And it’s still going today.

Miller: Sort of like a bowling ambassador for the community, it seems like?

Allen: He was. It’s very natural to him and he talked really well with just about anybody. And he remembered everything. He could talk about a lot of things, where I was very narrow in my thinking. I was very analytical, not the people person. I just would stand off to the side and let him run the show. I was perfectly happy with that.

Miller: But that’s not what you’re doing now. What’s it been like for you to take over all of those roles?

Allen: It’s been enlightening to what I actually can do that I didn’t think I could. I’ve had a lot of people step up and come forward, volunteer. My kids, I just couldn’t do it without them. If I didn’t have them, I don’t know what I’d do. But the volunteers have been really the most surprising. Annie is one of them, the league secretary you guys talked to. She’s an elementary teacher at Chinook, and when she has the time, she programs electronic advertising in the building. She volunteers to help us with other leagues and how to coordinate and run things.

Miller: All as a volunteer? Because those things, they sound like paying jobs.

Allen: Yes! Just because … she just loves us.

Miller: Well, I’m glad you mentioned that, because I do want to play one more clip from what Malya heard on Monday, and then we can talk about it. This is Cat Botkin, your bar manager.

Cat Botkin [recording]: He was amazing, and he built an amazing community here and home for everybody. Both of them care so much about their employees. I think a lot of their dedication to this place and to keep it going, honestly, is for us.

Miller: How much do you think about your employees when you think about the possibility of selling?

Allen: I always think about them. It’s a lot of why I’m hesitating now. And with things changing, I know that we’re busier, not just because of the people coming in, but because of the people they meet, the people on the front lines, Cat, the bartender, Angie and Caleb at the desk, and Bethany, Amber, Zyler and everybody in the restaurant. It’s up to them. And if I treat them well, then they treat the customers well. And it’s very much a family. I have generations of family that have worked for us and do still work for us

Miller: And your family too, right? Am I right that your 9-year-old granddaughter sometimes pitches in?

Allen: Yes, Genni, if she can get out of school on a Monday. She loves to go to work with her mom on Mondays and she runs the register in the restaurant for a league that we have that comes in.

Miller: I think what I’ve read is that they have various disabilities or cognitive disabilities.

Allen: Yes, and they’re the sweetest, kindest, invite us to their birthday parties. And they love Genni, and they all know her, and they are so proud of her for trying at such a young age, as we are.

Miller: What’s it like to be in the business of fun? You’re not a dentist, an accountant or a lawyer. People don’t go to you because they have to. They go to you because they want to. That’s not really what my business is. I’m just curious what it’s like to be in the business of fun?

Allen: Well, when they’re spending their extra money, you want to make sure that they’re having a good time and that it means something. So we do try really hard to come up with different events, specials and things that attract people, because we know it’s hard out there right now. So we’re trying to do things like that.

One of my favorite visions of Don that kind of sums him up is that we would have school groups come in and they would take all 42 lanes. It was like their summer end-of-school-year bash.

Miller: That must have been so loud.

Allen: Yes, very loud. And we have cosmic bowling, which is loud music going. And at the time, it was the song from “Frozen.” I can’t think of the words.

Miller: I will save your ears by not singing it to you right now.

Allen: Thank you, that’s good. But he stood in the lobby and he watched as that song came on. Forty-two lanes of all the girls stopped bowling and they sang that song out loud, so loud. He loved it! He was absolutely moved. And he looked at me and he goes, “That’s why we’re here. That’s why we do what we do.”

Miller: You don’t sound like someone who wants to get out of the bowling alley business.

Allen: It’s fun, when you’re not up to your neck in debt, when you’re trying to pay the bills. So when you can sit back and kind of relax, and like you said, have a fun job and have people having fun...

Miller: Well, I didn’t say it was a fun job. I said that you’re in the business of providing people fun. You’re not doing root canals.

Allen: Well, I quit bowling a long time ago because it was hard to do both.

Miller: You don’t bowl yourself?

Allen: No, I bowled a lot, and tennis elbow, they say. Or I should say bowling elbow, I guess.

Miller: Let’s say you are around, going strong, in five years, will the bowling alley be any different?

Allen: I have ideas. I don’t have plans, but I have ideas of what I’d like it to be. It would be a business that is not just bowling, that the bowling maintains. Bowling is seasonal, so I want to add on to our current place that would be year-round business.

Miller: And bring in more money in the summer.

Allen: It would. It would sustain us and we could do more things. The building’s from 1948, so we need to do some things.

Miller: Rachael Allen, thanks so much. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Allen: Thank you! You too.

Miller: Rachael Allen is the owner of Allen’s Crosley Lanes.

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