ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 7, 1996 TAG: 9605070026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TRACY GALLIMORE STAFF WRITER
Rock 'N Glow bowling is "Saturday Night Fever" meets "Saturday Night At The Bowling Alley." Missing only are bad fashion statements (or maybe not, depending on your opinion of bowling attire) and maybe a young John Travolta in a pair of rented shoes.
Laser lights cut through swirling fog, in time with music from the state-of-the art sound system that makes you want to do the Funky Chicken or worse.
As one bowler put it, "It ain't your daddy's Thursday night bowling!"
Blacklight bounces off the pins, makes the lanes glow an eerie blue and turns T-shirts whiter than white. Bowlers boogie up to the mark, launch their balls, and boogie back. High-fives are frequent, even for gutter balls. Strikes set entire groups whooping and dancing.
Ever felt silly putting on rented shoes and getting up in front of people who actually know how to bowl? If so, Rock 'N Glow may be for you. It's hard to take the game seriously when you are, in effect, bowling in a disco.
A Mr. T ("I pity the fool who don't like to bowl") look-alike hefts a 20-pound ball, arches an eyebrow and flashes a smile. You expect to see the pins quake and tumble before he even launches the ball. Then you notice his score. Half a dozen gutter balls so far and the night is young.
The wild variety of music adds to the kooky atmosphere: within 15 minutes, bowlers enjoyed Anita Ward's "You Can Ring My Bell," "(Way Down Yonder On The) Chattahoochee" by Allen Jackson and "Whoomp! There It Is," by Tag Team.
Only about two dozen alleys in the nation offer glow bowling. Expecting to be the first glow bowling alley in Virginia, Triangle Lanes in Christiansburg has invested more than $20,000 in renovations so bowlers can enjoy the newfangled entertainment. Lanes were treated with a special substance, brand new glow-in-the-dark pins were purchased and dozens of blacklights were installed so that when the lights go down, a glow goes up.
Bowlers seem to love it. Leaguers, the most serious bowlers of all, say that they need a chance to bowl just for fun sometimes. Rock 'N Glow bowling makes it easier to relax and not worry about scoring big.
Gena Owens and Stacey Hill, of Dublin, both college students, drop in on a Thursday night for a little fun. This is their first time at Rock 'N Glow.
"Oh wow! Man ... is this different from plain old Thursday night at the bowling alley! We usually bring a group of friends and go bowling every week. I can't wait to see how my buddies like this!" Owens said.
Robbie Craig, 10, a student at Dublin Elementary and a seasoned bowler, pronounces glow bowling as "the best bowling I've ever done and I've been bowling since I was 4 years old."
Owner Herb Alcorn feels great about the response he has seen so far to the new idea. "Families love it, students love it, even league bowlers think it's great. I think we've got a winner," he said. "Terry Stike, our manager, really deserves the credit. He has been the driving force behind getting glow bowling in here."
Triangle Lanes offers Rock 'N Glow bowling on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. for $15 per lane with up to six bowlers. Glow bowling also is offered on Friday and Saturday nights from midnight to 3 a.m. for $20 per lane with up to six bowlers.
Regular bowling is still $2.50 per game. Shoes rent for $1.50.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. A bowler is surrounded by movingby CNBlights and the bowling pins glow from the black lighting at Triangle
Lanes. color.