For a lot of New Englanders, candlepin bowling used to be a regular part of life. In Ellsworth, Maine, Autumn Mowery is trying to keep that tradition going.

Asked the difference between candlepin and regular bowling, Mowery put it simply: “Well, this one’s better!”

Candlepin uses thinner pins and smaller balls, and Mowery has been around it since she was 6, especially during Maine winters. She started working at the alley at 17 and became fascinated by the pin-setting machines.

“I remember my first time going back there, I’m looking up at these machines and I’m like, ‘Whoa, like, this is so cool!'” she said.

She learned to fix the machines herself, despite getting “smacked in the eye with a ball,” breaking fingers and getting her hair caught in the gears. She even talks to the machines.

“When I’m having a really good day, I will come back here and go, ‘Let’s go! We got this!'” she said.

In 2020, the alley was set to be bulldozed after the previous owner let it fall apart. Mowery, then 18, asked for three months to try to save it. She said if she could not keep it running, the owner could tear it down.

“The obstacles this place has thrown at me, sometimes I think it doesn’t want me here,” she said.

Soon after she took over, a storm damaged the alley’s wiring, the roof started leaking and a pipe burst. Then COVID hit. She was working every day to keep the business open.

“I would’ve if it wasn’t for Mom,” she said of giving up. “She was kind of like the angel during everything. Because of Mom, I didn’t give up.”

Mowery said her mother, Amanda, taught her to stay positive through hard times.

“Growing up was just really tricky, just walking on eggshells a lot,” Mowery said. “We were feeding off of the environment that was around us.”

She said that environment was difficult physically and mentally. She still lives with anxiety, and said that shaped her original goal.

“I wanted to become a clinical therapist. That was kind of always the goal, to help people. And with this place, I saw a lot of potential.”

She said one moment at the alley pushed that into action. Mowery noticed a couple sitting in a booth and felt something was wrong.

“There was a couple sitting over at that furthest booth. And she wouldn’t leave the guy’s side, and I thought, I definitely was, like, catching on to some red flags. When I brought out their food, I brought them out napkins, and I handed her the napkin and I had written on there to do a thumbs-up or thumbs-down if she was okay, and she put a thumbs-down.”

Mowery called police. In the months that followed, she started opening the alley to people who needed somewhere to talk.

“Domestic violence victims have been able to come here,” she said, “and we’ve been able to, like, put the tables and chairs all together and do therapy sessions.”

Bowler Jen Johnson said she had stopped coming to the alley, but now returns with friends.

“For a girl her age to bring this to life again, to reinvent it, it’s a gift for all of us,” Johnson said. “That’s why we want to give back to her, because she brings people together.”

It has been six years since Mowery made that three-month offer. She is now 24 and making monthly payments to buy the alley with her business partner, Ryan Lounder.

Lounder is also the pizza chef, the fry cook and owner of the game shop next door. He is also Mowery’s fiancé. They plan to hold their wedding reception at the alley next year.

The couple has a GoFundMe but have not widely promoted it. Mowery and Lounder instead put what profit they make back into the community through food drives and pancake breakfasts.

“Really? Probably not. And should we? Also, probably not. Could we upgrade the machines more? Yes. But we’re not the only people in need of stuff,” Lounder said.

Mowery and Lounder also have a young son, Jackson. Mowery said he is already picking up the spirit of the game.

“I have joked with a lot of people, that he’s either going to love bowling, or hate it!” Mowery said.

“For so long I’ve been searching of who I am, and I feel, like, that the place really did save me, and helped me find that,” she said. “I feel like it really just brought out who Autumn really is, if that makes any sense! And it just feels good. I’m happy, you know? And me being happy is also making others around me happy. So, it works out!”

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