Pinsetters never went on 'strike'

If you've bowled since 1960 or so, chances are you haven't seen a human pinsetter waiting to scramble into action. They job was rendered obsolete with the advent of automatic machines.

But back in the day, this is how young men like Kenny Streck of Ida Grove and Jim Druivenga of Battle Creek, Iowa, spent a few evenings per week. It's also how a lifelong passion for bowling began, earning 10 cents per line.

"We'd sit back on a platform just above the pins," Streck says over a hamburger at Ida Bowl & Hideaway Lounge in downtown Ida Grove. "And after the ball came through, we'd clear the pins and put them in the pinsetter and then pull the lever or handle to lower them to the alley."

"You could make $3 per night," Druivenga says. "And after the league bowling was over, there might be some guys who wanted some extra practice. They'd buy us a burger or a malt if we'd continue setting pins for them."

Streck, 76, and Druivenga, 74, worked at the bowling alley in downtown Arthur, Iowa. Roy Sievert, 83, of Ida Grove, set pins occasionally in the 1940s at sites in Arthur and Holstein, Iowa.

"You'd stay out of the way," Sievert says. "You didn't want to get hit. I think you could break a leg."

"I think it could get pretty cold back there behind the lanes," adds Druivenga.

Streck recalls setting pins on numerous Saturday and Sunday afternoons for open bowling sessions. He also worked various league nights during the week. At the time, he wasn't participating in the sport as his native Ida Grove didn't have a bowling center. Jack Wright started the lanes above Sportsman's Lounge in 1957. Wright built the current Ida Bowl facility in 1974.

Streck began bowling as a high school junior or senior, over at the lanes in Arthur. Following his 1954 graduation from Ida Grove High School, he entered the U.S. Army and served as a radar operator in Germany. He bowled overseas.

"We stayed in (Adolf) Hitler's barracks and they were nice," Streck says. "They had a theater there, a swimming pool, ball diamond and a bowling alley."

Streck returned to his family's farm near Ida Grove in 1956 and has been there ever since, working ground that's been in his family for 112 years. the former Ida County Rural Electric Cooperative manager is currently enjoying his 58th year of league bowling, knocking down pins for the Tuesday night league team sponsored by Gorden's Body Shop of Ida Grove.

Teammate Druivenga worked for Midwest Industries for 45 years before retiring in 2004. Druivenga's all-time high of 279 was surpassed by Streck's 289-pin effort.

They share fond memories of their working start in a lifelong sport.

"Yes, I remember that you laid the pins in a rack and hid from the hard throwers," says Streck, noting that one person often handled pin-setting duties on two lanes. "The pins did break on occasion."

Druivenga relishes the work and what his $3 could buy back then. "You know, gas was 10 cents per gallon in those days," he says.

As was the going rate for a top-notch notch pinsetter looking to be industrious in his "spare" time.