Rebman Recreation, a Lorain institution located at 5300 Oberlin Ave., typically has the sounds of rolling heavy bowling balls smashing into each other daily.
For 75 years, that has been the sound of the balls thumping the lanes then smashing into the pins.
Rebman is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
The business opened its doors in 1946 in a two-story building on Broadway Avenue under the direction of the Rebman father-son duo of Dominic and Dom.
That building is long gone.
It was razed to make room for the Nardini underpass.
In 1955, the business moved to its current location where it now houses 48 lanes.
Prior to the expansion, there were 24 lanes.
It features state-of-the-art Qubica scoring, a pro shop and a snack bar/lounge.
In addition to the lanes, there are the On the Avenue party rooms, which are perfect for hosting a birthday party, wedding shower or anniversary party.
The family-owned business now is owned and operated by the four Rebman children.
From oldest to youngest, they are Rick, Patti, Rob and Mary Lou.
“Lorain’s very supportive of us, or we wouldn’t be here,” Patti Rebman-Bellman said on a recent Friday night as bowlers from a variety of leagues downed pins and conversed. “We wouldn’t have been here 75 years without their support.”
The story of how the business started is interesting.
Following World War II, the younger Rebman wanted to open a bowling alley.
The elder Rebman wanted to open a bar.
The location on Broadway featured a bar and four lanes when it first opened, but later added eight more lanes.
“He wanted to go into business where people could be socially active and keep families involved,” Rebman-Bellman said when asked what drew her father, Dom, to get into the bowling business.
Dom Rebman and his wife, Mary, who have both since passed, did the heavy lifting in getting the business up and running at the Broadway location.
The couple did the back-breaking work of lacquering the lanes, according to family lore.
Mary Rebman poured the lacquer and her husband pulled the applicator.
There were no pin re-set machines.
Lorain school students were paid three cents a game to do the job.
The Rebman children said they learned a lot from their parents about running a business.
Patti Rebman-Bellman said the biggest takeaway from those parental lessons was keeping the place clean.
“My father taught us that, you keep his place clean,” she said. “It’s the famous Walt Disney thing, keep it clean and they will come.”
Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic was tough, but the business made it through, Rebman-Bellman said.
“We had to go every other lane,” she said. “We had to use masks, we had to put up plastic shields (to keep separation).
“We disinfected the balls and people were bowling with gloves.”
But the business has regained footing and is doing “good” in the new normal, Rebman-Bellman said. The party rooms are also always busy. “I do pretty well with that,” said Rebman-Bellman.
As for bowling, there are approximately 25 to 30 leagues up and running, which is down from the 50 leagues the business used to host back in its heyday when the steel plant was running full shifts and the Ford plant was pushing out Thunderbirds.
But times change.
And, there is good news for the Rebmans, though.
Youngsters these days apparently are taking to the lanes.
“From the bumpers, up to probably age 18, we get a lot of business,” Rebman-Bellman said. “And high school bowling is huge.”
So if you like to bowl, and you’re in and around Lorain, she said you can always drop in at Rebman.
“We’re always trying to do the best for the bowlers and make it a great experience,” she said.
