PRESTON – The bowling balls keep rolling down at Pop’N Pins Lanes located at 411 U.S. 91 in Preston. Built in 1960, it has provided entertainment for people in and out of Franklin County since then.
Pop”N Pins Lanes located at 411 U.S. 91 in Preston has been entertaining towns folk for nearly 60 years on April 9, 2025.
Most people at 75 years old are retired, but Delra Talbot and his wife Dawna own and operate the bowling alley, a place people can go to have fun.
“It’s been a real pleasure running this bowling alley. You meet a lot of good people,” he said. “We see mostly the good side of people and sometimes we see a few that aren’t so good.”
The Talbots originally bought the business in 1990. They sold it in 2018 and got it back in February 2025.
“I was working here in the 80’s. The owners were Grant and Jolene Hunsaker,” he said. “Grant got sick and eventually died and I stayed on to help Jolene. They had owned it for about five years when she talked to me about buying it. So I did.”
Hunsakers also owned the Sears catalogue store in Preston.
Pop’N Pins Lanes was a going operation. They had two bowling leagues going every night they were open.
“Now we have two leagues on Wednesday and Thursday evening,” Talbot said. “We have a youth league with 39 kids bowling every Saturday. The youth are our future bowlers.”
They have a team that comes all the way from Montpelier and one from Smithfield to bowl in their leagues.
One of the highlights of owning the bowling alley was when Jared Hess came to film a scene for his movie Napoleon Dynamite.
“They came to me and told me they were doing a low budget movie. They wanted to spend all day in here,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. I took a couple days getting things ready for them.”
Pop”N Pins Lanes was part of the Napoleon Dynamite and the cast of the movie left photographs prominently displayed on the walls of the bowling alley on April 9, 2025.
They added the bowling scene in the movie and it added a lot of attention to their small town bowling alley.
“We had a lot of people come though and swing by on their way to Yellowstone,” he said. “We went through three notebooks of people signing them and tell something about themselves. We had a lot of fun with it.”
There are some color photographs of the cast from the movie still hanging on a wall people can look at.
Talbot said there has been an awful lot of decline in the industry since the 1970’s when bowling was bigger part of the American culture.
“Now a days people have their own toys to play with,” he said. “Bowling is not the entertainment it once was. We are trying to change that.”
They serve food from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. during the week.
“We have the restaurant with hamburgers and fries, bowling alley type food,” Talbot said. “We also have chicken and shrimp baskets, Philly cheese and even some patty melts.”
On Saturday, the restaurant is open from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.
Pop”N Pins Lanes has been a place where Preston residents and other can try and knock down bowling pins for six decades.
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“We have hired more help than ever. I guess I’m not a kid any more, I just act like it,” he said. “I guess that’s what its like when they tell you to grow up”.
The same equipment that was used in 1960 is still used today.
“I still have the original Brunswick equipment,” he said. “I try keep it all original.”