My sister called me this past weekend and asked if I wanted to go out to the bowling alley one last time before it was no longer in the Taylor name. We were busy so I told her no, and that I had already said my goodbyes when our dad officially retired and sold his part a couple of years ago. Myself, my sisters, and our parents took some photos with the soon to be old sign that year to commemorate the end of an era. But it was the next day after she had called me that I realized, this was hitting a little different than I thought it would. A lot different.
The bowling alley, officially registered as Airport Bowling Lanes but known as Dix-E-Town Lanes, was founded in 1963 by five owners, one of them being my papaw B.L Taylor. And as of May 19th, 2024, the bowling alley for the first time in 60 years will no longer be in the Taylor name.
And when I really think about that, a flood of emotions run through me. And that’s because the bowling alley built me.
The bowling alley is where my parents met. My mom actually began working at the bowling alley before my dad (whose parents owned it) ever did. And it’s where they’d meet. We joke about the fact that mom was an employee at the bowling alley longer than dad.
Soon after in 1983, my grandparents bought out the other owners and became the sole owners of Dix-E-Town Lanes. At that time, my dad worked full time outside the bowling alley, at Lowes when mom was pregnant with me, while also working full time at the bowling alley unpaid helping his parents undertake this big financial obligation that was going to create this amazing life for his family.The bowling alley brought my family closer together, and at times tore us apart. When my grandparents became the sole owners, their three sons (Denny, David, and my dad Dean) also became a part of the bowling alley. My uncle Denny did the financials, my dad and uncle David helped with the operations. It was literally a family affair. They worked together by day, and we took family trips to the lake, the beach, Gatlinburg, and beyond by downtime. The Taylor family was tight. I can remember many of holidays and just becauses spent at the bowling alley with the entire Taylor family, eating, cooking, laughing– the fish frys, us cousins dressed in Thanksgiving garb, performing the latest play we made up, the birthday parties, all these things when I was a kid to later when I had kids of my own, spending many holidays with them there, too.
But also when you spend that much time together and financially tied to the same investment, there’s bound to be some disagreements. That coupled with tragedies and broken hearts of our mamaw, the matriarch passing soon after my Uncle Denny passing at such a young age which led to my aunt and cousins moving back to Michigan, that things began to change. Time would lead our family down different paths as the grandkids began to grow older. That’s how life works. Later my papaw would pass, then my uncle David and aunt Tonya would lose both of their kids, our cousins, tragically. So much love was shared at the bowling alley, and so much loss.
My dad had the financial weight of the business on his shoulders once my uncle Denny passed. He and mom were all in, this was their livelihood to raise their family, and I learned through them what it takes to run a successful business. I learned the importance of community, treating your customers well, and your employees even better. So many of these people became my extended family because that’s who they are to the Taylor family. My dad taught me the importance of taking calculated risks as he implemented new programs and even started another business. I watched my dad teach college bowling classes at ECC, the necessity to evolving to make sure your business stays relevant, the proper way to kick off a new league, how to de-escalate a bad situation, the importance of taking good care of your employees, and above all, no matter what, your family always comes first.
The bowling alley has always been my stability. One random day in January when I was 20, I was leaving Wal-Mart and dad called to tell me we were getting bad weather (a tornado to be exact). I drove to the bowling alley because I knew I’d be safe there. That is the epitome of what the bowling alley has been to me. From the time I was a kid to an adult with my own family, I could go there for a meal, or for fun, or if I felt lost or confused, I could go there just to be around people I know and care about and who were always happy to see you. No matter what I was going through, what my family was going through– moving, deaths, divorces…. life changed but the bowling alley always remained our stability. And that’s what I’ll miss the most.
There’s so much I could continue to go on and say about the bowling alley. The people I met, the experiences I had, the life that it has given me and what it has meant to me, but for now, I’ll end with just being grateful for the bowling alley that built me.