Use the shoes

A night of authentic bowling, however, doesn't happen at the self-consciously hip basement lanes at Kings in the Back Bay or even Milky Way in Jamaica Plain. It's the alleys in the neighborhoods and suburbs where a retro look doesn't have to be acquired, because it's already there.

Lines are shorter and lanes are cheaper at these old-school alleys. But non-New England natives be warned: Don't expect to find much 10-pin bowling around Boston where candlepin is king.

NEIGHBORHOOD JOINTS

Sacco's Bowl Haven, 45 Day St., Somerville ($2.50 per string/$1 shoes); South Boston Candlepin, 542 E. Broadway, South Boston

Go bowling once at Sacco's Bowl Haven in Davis Square and you might just wind up a regular. That's what happened to Jeremy Karlin and his girlfriend, Melissa Villar. You can find them there almost every Friday night, plus their league night on Sunday and an occasional weekday, too.

Karlin says he developed this "random quirky obsession" last summer while playing with his brother, a student at nearby Tufts. "It's a good way to escape from the stressful work week, and it's not detrimental to our health," he says.

Soon, Villar was hooked, too. "It's not the typical bar scene," admits Villar, a 24 year-old nutrition counselor. "My friends think it's very low class, but I like it." Plus, she takes a certain satisfaction in beating Karlin. (She averages in the low 90s versus his mid 80s.)

Most nights, they blend right in among the college and twenty-something crowd. On Fridays, a DJ blasts requests that bounce from AC/DC to Prince. But playing in a league - when they're the youngest by decades - was another matter. Skeptical looks made them feel like they fit in about as well as the blue and silver swordfish mounted on the wall.

Eventually, the couple proved their mettle. "They accept us now," Villar says. Karlin was even nominated as captain - though the task of compiling scores is less an honor than a chore. Come the holidays, they might fit in even more: They plan to exchange bowling balls as presents.

Women bowlers planning a visit to South Boston may want to leave their boyfriends behind. That's a requirement if you want to play with the "Bickering Babes," a women's league that gathers and teases each other every Friday night.

The rules are simple: no men and no kids. "It's a girl's night out," explains Kristen Lauro, who plays alongside her aunt and sister. Sometimes it becomes a girl's weekend, thanks to the extra couple dollars they kick in each week for their annual weekend away in Atlantic City or Lake Winnipesaukee.

Bowling leagues remain the bread and butter at most alleys. Here, they range from a kids-only league on Saturday morning to the Tuesday morning senior league ($7, coffee and Danish included). Even on Friday nights, the aqua benches patched up with duct tape are crowded with league players - but nearly empty by 8:30 p.m. So come early, grab a $2.25 cup of beer at the counter, and maybe the Bickering Babes will let you join.

ICE CREAM

Twentieth Century Bowling, 1231 Hyde Park Ave., Hyde Park

Bowling is only part of the reason to stop by Twentieth Century Bowling in Hyde Park. The ice cream is the real draw here. Two dozen gooey homemade flavors - like peanut sunrise and kahlua chip - are made right behind the counter by owner Ron Covitz.

This is Boston's most kid-friendly bowling alley - or the perfect place if you want to be a kid again. The only drinks you'll find on tap are frappes. The basement pool hall was long ago converted into a karate studio.

And the bowling is fine. Automatic scoring was added last year. After all, as manager Bucky Woodsworth explains, "we are called 20th Century Bowl." That didn't stop some of the seniors from complaining about the blue screens and consoles at every table.

This is a place where everyone knows everyone. The Friday night crowd is mostly league players, refreshingly of more than one race. Patty Godsoe has been playing here since she moved to the neighborhood 20 years ago. Her kids don't mind getting dragged along - as long as there's a scoop in it for them.

ATOMIC BOWL

Needham Bowl-A-Way, 16 Chestnut St., Needham; Metro Bowl, 63 Foster St., Peabody; Big League Bowling, 1834 Centre St., West Roxbury (Lazer bowl: $12.50/half hour); Ryan Family Amusement Center, 64 Brookline Ave.

What do you get when you turn off the lights, add loud music, darkness, disco balls, black lights and lasers, or smoke to a bowling alley? Whether they call it atomic bowling, rock 'n' roll bowl, or cosmic bowl, nearly every alley created some variation on the theme in recent years for the weekend crowd.

The coziest venue for the genre is Needham's Bowl-A-Way. It's not easy to spot this basement alley next to a dentist's office just off the village green. With only eight candlepin lanes, it's like bowling in your family's basement rec room.

At 6 p.m. on a Saturday, the crowd is mostly middle schoolers, their white shirts glowing under black lights. (A more mature crowd comes for moonlight bowl on Sundays when oldies play beneath the black light glow.)

Red pulsating lights along the lanes make it feel like a runway at Logan - with two disco balls and computer-controlled dance music. In all, owner Scott Moore has poured $25,000 in high-tech equipment into the place since buying it three years ago. Next up: carpeted murals on the walls, a bowling alley staple.

Moore bowled here as a kid growing up in Newton and worked as an EMT and at the defunct Kenmore Bowladrome before returning as owner of this 86-year-old alley. Don't even think about telling him 10-pin bowling is better. "I'm very offended by that," says Moore, who, like most candlepin bowlers, swears it requires more skill. "I did this 20 years before I even knew there was any other kind."

On the North Shore, Peabody's Metro Bowl offers 45 lanes sprayed with mist to create fog during cosmic bowl. Soon they'll add neon balls. Closer to downtown is "lazer bowling" at West Roxbury's Big League Bowling - the DJ caters mostly to kids' birthday parties. Or the Ryan Family Amusement Center near Fenway Park.

TIME WARPS

Central Park Lanes, 10 Saratoga, East Boston;Wakefield Bowladrome, 92 Water St., Wakefield ($2.50 per game/$1 shoes)

If cosmic bowling sounds like sensory overload, try some alleys that pride themselves on being low-tech - or no-tech.

The wood paneling and mustard colored paint at Central Park Lanes in East Boston haven't changed since the place opened on Jan. 1, 1950. The machines that retrieve the balls are so old that the parts are extinct.

Sure, the price has gone up - a string costs $2 and shoes are 75 cents. (still less than the cost of a soda in the vending machine) And Charles Vozzella has taken over the place just off Central Square from his dad, Angelo, whose portrait hangs next to the door.

Otherwise, regulars proudly point out, it's exactly the same. "This is a true house, no frills," says Kevin Woodside, 42, who started coming here before he was even born: His mother bowled here while she was pregnant. Even though he lives in Winthrop now, he still bowls here two nights a week as do his son and nephew. And his mother stops by, too - it's the best way to catch her grandkids.

In comparison, the Bowladrome in Wakefield may seem downright modern. Not that the formica counters and baby blue curtains covering the walls have been replaced in three decades. In fact, the modest color TV is the only indication that LBJ is no longer president. Ask nicely and owner Tom Giordano might grab the photo album of the Bowladrome's recent 50th anniversary party where those who worked here as teenagers came back as retirees.

TEN PIN SANCTUARIES

Lanes & Games, 195 Concord Tpke, Cambridge; Town Line Ten Pin, 665 Broadway, Malden (Sat/Sunday $3.75 per game)

For people who grew up with 10-pin, there's just no other way to bowl. For one thing, candlepin bowling balls are small: "The ball just kind of bounces and there's no gratification of hearing a strike," says David Chu, 28, who grew up in Kentucky. He comes to Lanes & Games every few weeks with a bunch of friends from his BU days. They compete men versus women in side-by-side lanes.

Head toward Alewife, Dorchester, or the Malden-Melrose border and enter the rare Boston sanctuaries where 10-pin rules. This is, after all, a state where candlepin alleys outnumber 10-pin by 10 to one. There are only four places around Boston where you can even put three fingers inside a bowling ball.

You can wait as long as four hours on a weekend for one of Kings' 16 lanes. The other options are much bigger megaplexes with dozens of lanes, restaurants and arcades, and even a batting cage in Dorchester. Malden's Town Line is so big there are call boxes on the pillars behind every lane.

Many of those who make the trip hail from outside New England.

Lanes & Games' lane-side second floor lounge has the most extensive bowling alley menu: a half rack of ribs for $6.50 or a rib-eye steak for $10. There's also a full bar in the lounge, where big-screen projection TVs and framed pictures of Boston Sports legends like Larry Bird and Bobby Orr line the walls. For a more upscale night out, try the Town Line's Rain nightclub with long bars, cozy booths, and a dance floor in back with live music ranging from karaoke to oldies.

THE ALL NIGHTER

Boston Bowl, 820 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester ($4.25 for 10 pin and $3.55 for candle pin)

After most bowling alleys have closed for the night, Boston Bowl's parking lot in Dorchester starts to fill up. Boston Bowl, open 24 hours, is the one place in town where the bowling literally never stops. The crowd seldom thins out before 3 a.m. on weekends.

That would be an early night for Hum Cam and his pack of bowling buddies from Dorchester and West Roxbury. For two years, this group of seven has been gathering here nearly every Friday night. They usually don't leave until 5 or even 6 a.m. - with a nightcap of candlepin.

They're fueled by bottles of Mountain Dew and competition. The losing team of four buys snacks next time and pays the bill that can run as high as $225 for a full eight hours of bowling. The bill includes free white socks emblazoned with the alley's name and an American flag.

Not that they want for company. At midnight, the wait for one of Boston Bowl's 29 10-pin lanes is an hour long. You can pass the time on the mini climbing wall, fooz ball table, and arcade games. The snack bar serves pizza, fried chicken, 13 beers on tap and in bottles, and perhaps the most unique dessert option: worms and dirt - cake and chocolate pudding with gummy worms on top.

Seth Stern is a staff writer for The Christian Science Monitor in Boston.