Our story starts on January 13, 1959 in Newington, Connecticut.  Frederick H. Callahan Jr., a police officer in town and his wife Loretta (Wood) Callahan, mother of two boys decided to build a bowling center on their farm land.  They worked very hard to build up this business. You could always find Loretta behind the front desk and Frederick (better known as Bud) was usually in back working on the machines or helping in the lounge.

With his busy schedule Bud still found time to move up in ranks to Detective Lieutenant in the Newington Police Department.  With the help of their two sons, Frederick H. Callahan III and Francis “Rip” Callahan, they built the Bowl-O-Rama into a family owned and operated business.

Like their parents Fred III and Rip stayed busy.  Following in his father’s footsteps Fred III was a Newington Police officer and Rip was a Firefighter and Chairmen of the Board of Fire Commissioners in town.  As you can see the Callahan’s were very busy and liked to keep it that way.

Fred III and Rip had families of their own. Fred III has a daughter named Amber. Rip married Patricia Zame and had two children Cindy and Fred J. Patricia worked as Bowl-O-Rama’s bookkeeper till her passing in 1994. Rip eventually re-married, his wife Lisa helps out in business, in the office and at the control desk. The kids started helping out in the business at a young age taking in rental shoes, cleaning tables and other odd jobs. Cindy took over as bookkeeper when her mom passed on, she also bartends and helps run the lounge. Amber is busy helping customers at the front desk and assisting her father with corporate events and birthday parties.  Fred J. runs the Pro Shop and helps his sister in the lounge.

As they grew older they too had families. Cindy has a son John Francis, Amber has a little girl, Emma, a step-daughter Faith and her newest addition, Charlotte.  Fred J. married Katie Funke in 2007, has two daughters, Lauryn and Shealin and a son Brennan. Katie is our daytime bartender and helps out with other small jobs around the building.  So, as you can see we like to keep it in the family and have done so for the past 50 years with three generations, and someday we hope the fourth generation will pitch in.

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