It is hard to imagine now, but at one time, Leask, Saskatchewan, had several eating establishments. Hungry patrons could dine at the cafe in the Windsor Hotel, John and Helen Pompu’s lunch counter, the Paris Cafe or at the restaurant in the bowling alley.
There are certain things I remember clearly about the bowling alley from when I was a teenager. There was the signature scent of businesses of the day; cigarette smoke mingled with the aroma of fried food. The sounds of pool balls clacking together and bowling balls hitting the hardwood and thundering down the lanes filled the air. The thud of an unfortunate gutter ball and the sound of bowling balls rolling on the ball return and banging into each other lingers. To me, a strike sounded like someone was splitting wood and with the clatter of dishes, people socializing, music playing on the jukebox and the chimes and bells of the game machines, it was a noisy place at times.
EMPLOYEES
The bowling alley employed people from many different walks of life. More than one generation of families worked at the bowling alley. This is not a complete list, but workers included: Ethel Burrows, Adeline Lucier, Agnes Mann, Thelma Hart, Rosie Pokol, Maggie Toth, Tina Budan, Vi Samiroden, Matilda Galambos and Annette Unyi. Joe and Mary Piche were the first janitors.
Pinsetters included Francis Benoit, Stanley Pompu, Ray Charbonneau, Leonard Lucier, Art Christensen and local youths Roy Toth, Eugene Toth, Wendy Toth-Neville, Della Toth-Bruce, Laurie Samiroden, Elva Richter-Boulanger, Jerry Teszeri, Bruce Peake, Nelson Pompu, Bruce Mansell, Calvin Derr, Allan Budan, Lenore Burrows-Jessop, Scot Budan, Perry Hart, Marilyn Hart-Heimbecker, Tina Brad-Dagenais, Lori Hoffman-Svoboda, Leslie Baron, Murray Stevens, Donna Jessop-Thompson, Denise Lalonde-Niccoli, Lana Lucier, Brian Galambos, Murray Kasun and Alan Hubbard. Wendy also worked as a dishwasher and a waitress.
The Farmer’s Dell Restaurant and Bowling Alley
Businesses in small towns frequently offered various services under one roof as that was the only way to survive. I refer to the business as the bowling alley, which includes the bowling, restaurant and pool areas.
Sixty years ago in 1962 Louis Yezovitsky built The Farmer’s Dell Restaurant and Bowling Alley, a 60 x 110’ structure, on First Avenue in Leask.
It was quite the attraction; the facility boasted six bowling lanes, five pool tables and a restaurant. The building, constructed from cinder blocks, sported light green exterior paint. Grey tile covered the floor throughout and a wood-panelled wall separated the bowling lanes from the pool room.
Louis was born in 1902 in Hungary and came to Canada in 1924; his wife, Mary, followed in 1927. He worked in bush camps and farmed in several locations in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Ontario. Louis and Mary had one child, who sadly passed away at a year old in 1928.
The couple returned to Saskatchewan and purchased two lots in Leask, one for a house and garage and the other for fruit trees and a large garden. They sold their surplus produce to local stores.
The Hubs confessed that as a kid, he and several accomplices stole crab apples from Louis’ yard, and he chased after them with a broom.
I never wondered about their story until now, even though Louis and Mary’s former home is across the alley from ours. Those crab apple trees are still there for The Hubs to see every day. That could be karma, keeping him on the straight and narrow, so he doesn’t return to a life of crime.
Louis and Mary sold the bowling alley to Lloyd Gysler in 1968 and Lloyd sold it to Ray and Gladys Fisher in 1969.
Mary died in 1974 and Louis in 1980, leaving their house vacant for several years.
Since The Hubs confessed his past indiscretions, I admit that my older sister and I snitched lilacs from Louis's yard for my wedding tables in 1981. They were no longer there but taking the flowers still felt shady. After 40 years, I finally got that off my chest. In my defence, it was all my sister’s idea, although I don’t know why I didn’t have anything for the tables the day before the wedding. She has a better eye for decorating than I do, and I think she thought the tables looked too plain, so we headed out on a crime spree.
Louis and Mary
Ray’s Bowling and Billiards
Fishers operated the facility as Ray’s Bowling and Billiards. Gladys’ brother, Jerry Heinbigner and his wife, Shirley, moved to Leask to manage the business. Maggie Toth was the cook and restaurant manager.
When Jerry and Shirley weren't available, the restaurant workers looked after the pool and bowling customers. The bowling alley was open evenings and on Saturday nights, the stores in town stayed open as well.
In 1974 Wayne Russell bought the business and operated it with Maggie Toth as restaurant manager.
BARBERSHOP
Jerry, a barber by trade, set up a shop in the southwest corner of the building. When he started cutting hair, an adult haircut was a dollar, a student paid seventy-five cents and kids were fifty cents.
His shop didn't have a door, but it had two windows, one facing the pool room and one viewing the restaurant area. A barber's chair, shampoo sink, mirror, cupboard for tools and two chairs for waiting patrons completed the decor. Jerry still owns his original barber's chair, a 1950s model with a porcelain base and skirt.
After Ray and Gladys sold the business, Jerry continued to manage it and cut hair there until 1975, when he moved to a barbershop he had built on Main Street.
The young people loved the jukebox and when the serviceman came to change the 45s out, he would sell Wendy the used records such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones for $.10 each.
BOWLING
There was a counter where you paid and rented bowling shoes. A four-foot wall divided the bowling area from the restaurant.
Every two lanes shared a scorekeeper's table, ball return and a seating area with fibreglass benches. Most patrons bowled five-pin with the small black balls; the large multicoloured balls with finger holes were for ten-pin bowling.
I bowled there a few times, but I have more memories of gutter balls than strikes. I couldn’t throw hard enough to hit the pins as I failed miserably at any sport that involved throwing. A gutter ball and a strike are two very different sound memories, despair or triumph.
My maternal grandfather, George Brad, became an avid bowler after retiring to Leask. A men's and a ladies' bowling league were in full swing in the 1960s and 70s and Grandpa did the bookkeeping for the league. He took bowling seriously, going so far as to construct a practice lane in his basement. I never knew anyone else that had a bowling lane in their basement.
Every Sunday after mass, aunts, uncles and cousins gathered across the street at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Everyone enjoyed coffee or Tang, thickly sliced cheddar cheese, soup crackers and sweets. While the adults visited, us kids looked for ways to amuse ourselves, occasionally sneaking to the basement to stare in awe at the bowling lane. We were usually summoned upstairs before setting even one toe on the hardwood. The lane, with thick black padding at the end to stop the balls, seemed big then, but in reality, it fit in their bungalow-style house, so it wasn’t very long.
Mom was on a ladies' bowling team with Grandpa as their coach. It must’ve been important business if they had a coach.
Mom is second from the left.
A ladies' team that appears to have cleaned up on the hardware!
Back: Marcel and Maureen Robert,
Garnet and Ethel Burrows,
front; Marj Duncan and George Brad.
League bowling was on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights. Usually, all the lanes were busy, and although it was competitive, it was mainly a fun social activity with trophies and pins given out at the end of the season.
When I was about twelve, I stayed in town after school for a sports practice. It was a big deal for farm kids to stay instead of going home on the bus. After finishing at the school, a friend and I went to the bowling alley and hung out with the pinsetter. Meanwhile, my dad came to pick me up and he looked all over town (aka "hell") but couldn’t find me. When I surfaced and ran into him, he was not as pleased to see me as I had anticipated.
The rules were the same as they are now; you were not allowed on the lanes in street shoes. If you didn’t own a pair of bowling shoes, you could rent a pair. Anyone who has gone bowling remembers shelves of rental shoes with the size boldly displayed on the heel. God help you if you are self-conscious about having big feet.
Francis Benoit, a local fellow worked at various businesses over the years, doing odd jobs. When Jerry and Shirley arrived in Leask and went to check out the place, Francis was there and seemed to be involved in the discussions, so Jerry thought Francis was a part-owner. Working in the bowling alley gave Francis a strong sense of purpose. He set pins, lugged empty pop bottle cases and unloaded supplies. Everyone knew him and many remember how much he loved Pepsi ("p’essy”).
During a game, balls barreled down the lanes, striking the pins and propelling them in all directions. Some players threw hard and if they weren’t paying attention, a pinsetter could get hit by a flying pin. A dent in the roof stood as testament to this. Francis often set pins and Jerry had to take him to Shellbrook once for x-rays when he got hit.
The bowling alley only used human pinsetters; in the 70s, the owner purchased automatic setters but never installed them.
There was a foot pedal that activated metal placement pins on the floor. The setter would set up the pins and then put the balls on the return track. When the balls came back, the players knew it was safe to throw again. There was some back-and-forth posturing that went on behind the scenes. Impatient players threw before the setter was ready, trying to time it so that the ball arrived just as the setter finished the last pin. In response to this aggression, pinsetters retaliated by letting the balls go from a lower spot on the return ramp so that the balls wouldn’t make it up the ramp at the other end and the player would have to retrieve them. A particularly annoyed pinsetter would lift up the centre pin as a ball was coming straight for it, allowing the ball to go through without hitting any pins.
The setter sat on a ledge in the dimly lit area between the lanes and hid their legs behind the ball return slope. Setters usually worked two lanes at a time but did as many as four if required. Weekends and bowling league nights were the busiest and the best time for pinsetters to make extra cash.
POOL
A four-foot fluorescent light fixture illuminated each table. Cue racks, scoreboards and ashtrays hung on the walls amongst cigarette and pop posters. Seating was available along the wall.
The loser paid for the game. If groups played poker or pea pool, they paid the winner and the winner paid for the game.
Nicky Sally, another memorable local character, helped out in the pool area. When it wasn’t busy, he loved to teach local teens to play pool. He felt a strong sense of ownership of the billiards area and closely watched over it.
The names of some of the local pool sharks tossed in my direction include: Murray Stevens, Barry Pearce and Bruce (Juggy) Fiddler. Pinball, shuffleboard and bumper pool provided additional entertainment.
RESTAURANT
When you entered the building, a display counter for chocolate bars, chips, candy and cigarettes with a cash register perched on top sat to the left. A pop cooler was situated adjacent to the counter.
The kitchen was twenty feet long by twelve wide and was equipped with a combination grill and burner stove, deep fryer, fridge, freezer and sinks, but no dishwasher.
A low counter with six red vinyl and chrome stools, and basic chrome and pedestal table and chair sets made up the customer seating area. The restaurant had the capacity to seat forty people.
A daily special was served on weekdays. The restaurant was known for its signature “Bowling Alley Chicken,” which was pressure-cooked KFC style. When Jerry and Shirley first started, they purchased chicken seasoning from the previous owner. Eventually Maggie Toth and Jerry developed their own blend of herbs and spices, which remains a closely guarded secret. They catered to local events, providing individual chicken dinners in takeout boxes.
Like in most small-town establishments, a crew gathered for coffee on the regular to review community and world news.
A lot of wisdom at this meeting of the minds - coffee row circa the early 1970s - back left, Alex Duncan, Victor Davis, front left Charlie Unyi, Gaspar Teszeri, John Savenkoff, and Bill Monus (back to camera). An unidentified couple far back right.When I looked at this vintage photo, I initially only saw older gentlemen having coffee. When I dug deeper, I realized these men were so much more - European immigrants, soldiers, and homestead farmers, born in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Depending on their age, they lived through the 1918 flu, The Great Depression, The Dirty Thirties, and two world wars.
WHAT THINGS COST & WAGES
In the 1960s and 70s, $.50 went a long way:
- pool - $.10 - $.25
- bowling - $.50
- shoe rental - $.25
- pinball - $.10 or three games for $.25
- jukebox - three songs $.25
- chicken snack - $1.00
- French fries - $.25/gravy $.10 extra
- Coke was $.17 a bottle, increasing to $.32
- chips - $.15
- chocolate bar - $.25
- cigarettes - $.75
- staff hourly wage $1.05 - $2.00 (minimum wage)
- pinsetter wage - $.10/game
CHALLENGES
Interest in the activities the facility offered waned, the customer base grew smaller, and the income decreased. There were more home entertainment options and the population was more mobile, often travelling to larger centres on the weekends.
It was hard to keep ahead of expenses; the overhead on such a large building was crushing. Whenever there were any available funds, the leaky flat roof always needed repairs.
In the seventies, the building was sold to Peter Bell then twice more after that, including to Charlie Mack of the Paris Cafe, but it was never reopened. The gentlemen who owned the building after Peter had a kitchen fire in 1975 causing damage to the interior.
The equipment and furniture were sold. The lanes were cut into sections, loaded onto a flat deck trailer and unceremoniously hauled away. Eventually, the building became the property of the village.
LEASK SALES AND SERVICE
Norman Mattock and Melvin Coleman purchased the building in 1982 for a new business, Leask Sales and Service, an automotive repair shop.
They removed the roof and the wall between the bowling and pool areas and built the walls six feet higher in the front third of the building for their shop. A new back wall with two overhead doors was added and the outside walls in the rear two-thirds of the building were left standing at their original height. This open area in the back was used for parking and storage. They installed a peaked roof and shingled it. White siding was added to the top of the outer walls where they were built higher.
Back view
In 1992 the Village of Leask purchased the building for a maintenance shop, and it remains in use today. The exterior and roof were redone in beige metal siding.
ENDNOTES
The business world evolves, new ideas are implemented and ideas from the past are introduced to new generations.
In the early years of this country, general stores were popular; then, specialty stores became a big deal. Shopping preferences went back to general stores with all shopping needs available under one roof, just on a larger scale like Walmart. I wasn’t around when the first general stores existed, but I remember when some big box stores opened, and people were excited about one-stop shopping.
Although the bowling alley was only in operation for a dozen years, it left its mark on the memories of many. One of people’s fondest memories is of the chicken and fries cooked to perfection and of the thick milkshakes. Friends to visit with, games to play, crispy chicken, golden fries and thick brown gravy - the stuff dreams are made of. Man; those were the days. Now you can’t even look at a chicken for a dollar.
There is a part of me in every story I write, but I could never pen this type of story without help from the community. Thank you to Jerry and Shirley Heinbigner, Wendy Toth Neville, Maggie Toth, Norman Mattock and Murray Stevens for contributing to this project. It’s awesome to work with people who share my cherished life memories.
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