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JOHN SCHWARBLong hours and some mechanical know-how have enabled Ronnie Pitts to establish loyal clientele at his small bowling center.
BROOKSVILLE - Promptly at 9 a.m., the 14 lanes at Louie's Bowling Center crackle to life. Lights flicker on and the mechanical pinsetters rev, settling into a constant hum that won't end until closing time.
At 9:02, Ronnie Pitts dashes down Lane 11 to fix a light that remained dark over the 10 pins. Taking a bulb from Lane 13, which will not be used this morning by the Wednesday Morning Coffee League, he makes a quick switch.
"In a small business, you have to do it all," Pitts said.
As the owner, Pitts has done it all over 28 years. Seen it all, too.
Yet in this line of work, there is not always as much to see or do anymore.
"The coffee price is right," jokes Charlotte Lee, 71, between frames. As if the bottomless coffee pot at the end of the counter is the only thing that keeps her coming back.
For 20 years, this has been part of her weekly routine - and Lee is a relative youngster in the Wednesday Morning Coffee League. Some of its ladies have been in the league since its inception more than 40 years ago, when Louie's was built on the outskirts of Brooksville.
Times have changed.
When Louie Backlinie built an eight-lane bowling alley on East Jefferson Street, it was the only game in town. Folks from Zephyrhills, Dade City, Homosassa and other outlying areas traveled miles to play in leagues or spend evenings with family and friends.
Louie's place - which expanded with six more lanes about 1967 - had everything. A multi-table billiard parlor was popular with kids, and a full-liquor bar was available.
Today, it retains tons of old-school character. Blue and beige lockers line the entrance and the walls near Lane 1, for players to store regular shoes, bowling ball bags and other items. Seating areas behind the lanes have plastic chairs and a few wood chairs and tables.
Hanging from the ceiling are scoring monitors, displaying all 10 frames in black and white. And the lanes ... all wood, not the synthetic surfaces many newer centers have.
"This is just a homey place, a fun place," said Jackie Walczak, 77, from behind the front counter. For years she has dished out rental shoes and chat to countless bowlers, including the Wednesday Morning Coffee League.
But the league has dwindled over the years. It once took up all the lanes - eight, then 14 - but on a recent Wednesday occupied only six lanes for six teams of four players each, down from five.
"The biggest problem is everyone's getting older," Pitts said. "Ailments, aches and pains prevent them from coming. And some pass on."
Pitts has seen generations of bowlers come through the door since arriving in 1974 to work full time for his father-in-law. Wife Charlene, Louie's daughter, also came on board, and the two bought the alley in 1976 (Louie died in 2002, at age 87).
He was an auto mechanic and a racecar driver back in the day, competing all over the south and at area tracks against Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Darrell Waltrip and a 16-year-old Mark Martin before stock car racing went nationwide.
The years of tinkering with engines translated well to the bowling alley, where the work never ends. Pitts talks constantly of getting to work "in the back," in the dungeon at the rear of the alley, which is the central nervous system for the whole operation.
There's no bowling without ball-returners and pinsetters, and they require constant work.
"There's constant maintenance," Pitts said. "They're 2,000 pounds, probably as many parts as an automobile. It doesn't look like it, but there is."
A sign out front adjacent to the street reads "OWL." The "B" burnt out a few years ago. Pitts has a new sign but hasn't gotten around to putting it up. When it comes to sprucing up the lanes, there's a lot of things left undone. Retaining some of the charm is a plus, but it's obvious that Louie's is well behind the times in recreational bowling.
Bigger facilities such as 32-lane Mariner Lanes in the middle of Hernando County and the 44-lane behemoth Spring Hill Lanes have Louie's beaten in some areas.
Monitors offer fancy color graphics congratulating strikes and ridiculing splits and gutterballs. Rental balls are brightly colored according to weight, and speaking of colors, there's the cosmic-bowling trend (complete with disco balls and neon lights) that helped the sport pull in new blood in the 1990s.
"I thought it was a fad; I was probably wrong," Pitts said. "I should have got it, but it's expensive. Being a small center, it's hard to speculate on that and find out it doesn't work."
There's a number of things Pitts could do. The billiards area has one lonely table, the video game area is sparse. But keeping up with the day-to-day bowling requirements are enough, like the $7,000 lane resurfacing that will have to be done in a few months.
"With the income you have, it's hard to keep up," Pitts said. "I could spend a half-million dollars, but I'd have to will the payments to my kids."
None of his three kids, Pitts said, are interested in taking over the alley.
You'd never know it from driving past Spring Hill Lanes on U.S. 19, but bowling participation numbers are down nationwide. Pitts said league play has decreased by 50 percent over the last decade, and that's evident at Louie's.
There are some promising new winter leagues coming on board, but it's nothing like 15 years ago when Louie's had to run double shifts at night to accommodate multiple leagues.
Heck, even the new indoor smoking law took a toll. Pitts said he lost a few bowlers, and even inside Louie's the non-smoking environment feels funny.
But little changes from day to day at Louie's. Bowling costs $2.35 a game, $7.10 for four games, with shoe rental $1. League bowlers play for a buck and a half per game. Larger centers can't touch that.
Nor can they usually bowl with the owner, as Pitts does a couple of times a week.
The clientele is fiercely loyal, like the Wednesday Morning Coffee League. Vivian over on Lane 6 has been coming for 40 years, and Charlotte Lee can't imagine missing it after two decades.
"The friendships we've developed over the years ... I see folks that I don't see otherwise," Lee said.
Pitts said for those ladies and for others, he isn't planning on going anywhere. But he hesitates to say where Louie's Bowling Center will be in 20 years.
"It's hard to say. Somebody who doesn't know there are better things to put your money into will probably buy it," he said with a laugh.
Then he returned to his regular spot, in the back.