With some of these articles, I like to put a picture that makes people puzzle over why it’s there. This is one of those pictures. Putting together our current exhibit on how we’ve entertained ourselves for over 300 years led me to thinking about the places where some of those entertainments took place.
Drive-ins and movie theaters top the list of places that have gone from common place to harder to find. Beginning in the 20’s, many towns had movie theaters. Great Grandma Hartley liked to go to a theater in Marion. There were theaters in Wareham, Fairhaven and Buzzard’s Bay. New Bedford had many that were beautiful shrines to the movies and Rochester had a Drive-in.
Another place for fun was the roller skating rink. Rochester had one in a building at Mary’s Pond. The Village Barn on Main St. in Acushnet had an upstairs roller rink that took special skill to navigate. Growing up in Weymouth, it sometimes seemed like there was one on every corner. In later years, some were replaced by tennis clubs.
Then, there were bowling alleys. East Over Farm had a private bowling alley which was occasionally opened to Rochester residents. Fairhaven had the Atlantic Bowling Alley at the corner of Rte. 6 and Sconticut Neck Rd. where there is a shopping mall today. Buzzards Bay had one for many years after others had closed, and today there is a games center there. I believe there is a long-lived bowling alley on Hathaway Rd. in New Bedford.
Now to the picture. Maybe you’ve figured it out that it’s a picture of where the bowling alley in Mattapoisett used to be, right alongside the Cathay Temple which is now Ying’s. My grandmother bowled there with the Seniors, and now it’s a vacant lot.
I’ve mentioned tennis clubs of which there used to be many more than today and even the number of courts are shrinking or repurposed for pickleball.
I’m sure there are many more places that you can think of that I have missed, and I hope you’ll share them.
By Connie Eshbach
