Northern Lanes Bowling Alley, located at 510 Main Street in Presque Isle, is a busy spot on Friday nights. Community members and families pay a small fee for an eventful night together. Students from the University of Maine at Presque Isle partake in the fun for free on Friday nights.<\/p>\n
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The atmosphere of Northern Lanes breathes nostalgia into its patrons. The walls of this 14-lane candlepin bowling alley are home to handpainted advertisements and signage.<\/p>\n
There is the sound of pins clanking followed by cheers. Playful snickers become part of the fun.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere we go, Collins,\u201d Sean Harding, a fourth-year UMPI student, said.<\/p>\n
Tommy Collins is a seasoned candlepin bowler. \u201cI probably come here every other Friday,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He is most commonly seen there with the baseball team.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing here is a good team builder. We always get some friendly competition going,\u201d Collins, a fourth-year baseball player at UMPI, said.<\/p>\n
Dale Nickerson, manager at the bowling alley since 2011, oversees the lanes.<\/p>\n
Nickerson has been working for Northern Lanes since 2002 and has become a familiar face to the patrons of the alley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have bowled all of my life, Nickerson said.<\/p>\n
Nickerson\u2019s love for the alley doesn\u2019t go unnoticed. He stands behind the snack counter with a smile on his face. Here he sells affordable drinks and snacks to the patrons who have worked up a hunger.<\/p>\n
There is a tradition at the bowling alley that Nickerson has to continually be on watch for. Among the white pins are a few red-striped pins. When bowlers have one of these pins at the front of their racks they yell out, \u201cPizza pin!\u201d<\/p>\n
All eyes in the bowling alley turn to these bowlers as they try for a strike. If they make a strike, Nickerson and the other bowling alley employees award a coupon. This coupon is for a free pizza from the Pizza Box, which is located conveniently across the street from the alley.<\/p>\n
\u201cI won my first pizza pin this year!\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n
Winning also gives the bowlers and their groups the honor of having their pictures with a red-striped pin up on the Pizza Pin board. Their picture remains on this board for months to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love coming here,\u201d Harding said. \u201cThe atmosphere is great and the people are always kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harding has also won the pizza pin only once in his four years of bowling at Northern Lanes. \u201cIt was the best day of my life,\u201d Harding said.<\/p>\n
Northern Lanes Bowling Alley is the perfect spot for a fun night out. Each string of bowling costs $2.50 per person and shoes are only $1.50! There is the added bonus that UMPI students play completely free every Friday night. Its family friendly atmosphere is perfect for all ages. You don\u2019t want to miss out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Lanes Bowling Alley, located at 510 Main Street in Presque Isle, is a busy spot on Friday nights. Community members and families pay a small fee for an eventful night together. Students from the University of Maine at Presque Isle partake in the fun for free on Friday nights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9033,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4053\/revisions\/9033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}