One of the most exclusive bowling alleys in America
is the Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley aka as The White House
Bowling Alley which originally was a one-lane bowling alley in the basement
of the White House under the North Portico. The bowling alley was first built
in 1947 in the West Wing as a birthday gift for President Truman but he wasn’t fond
of bowling himself so he allowed his staff to use the facility and even start a
league. Later in 1969, President and Mrs. Nixon, who were both enthusiastic
bowlers, had a new one-lane alley built in an underground workspace area. At
some point (the sign reads established 1955), the bowling alley was moved and
renovated in the basement of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building which is
on the White House compound. 
With my university being so close to The White
House, I actually have a close friend/ colleague who works within the West
Wing. She has been in the room with the president and our first lady and I’m
not writing this in a nonchalant way at all. It’s pretty amazing. 
SO, when she
sent me a text asking if I wanted to go bowling IN THE WHITE HOUSE, I said YES
before I even knew that it was on a Sunday night right before I had a morning
meeting (read that as a looonnnnggg commute!) When I asked my fella if he
wanted to go bowling (pause), he looked at me (end pause) IN THE WHITE HOUSE,
he looked even more puzzled but quickly sad YES as if time would somehow erase
this amazing opportunity. We filled out our background check information and we
booked a hotel on my university’s campus. We were set.
That night, we met members of the group for dinner
and then headed bowling. We were super fortunate to have the receptionist of
the United States aka the ROTUS,
a play on POTUS – president of the United States, accompanying us. After a fun evening of bowling, we were given
a tour of the Eisenhower Executive Office.
While there were many beautiful
rooms such as this one on the left which includes a historic flag (the 48-star flag of the United States from 1912-1959), I snapped this picture (on the right) because it included bats :p I tried to do a little research to see what the event was but I only fell down a rabbi hole of haunted places.
Haunted Hour at the Eisenhower is the staff's annual Halloween office decorating contest. They really do it up. This year one office became Wonderland (with staff as Alice, Mad Hatter, etc), another was an 80s dance party, and the one where you saw that sign was Oz with the yellow brick road leading in from the hallway, the witch's legs sticking out from under a solid desk, and green lights making the Emerald City glow.
ReplyDeleteCool! Thanks for the details. I was only going down leads of haunted buildings. Any stories about the place being haunted? Any paintings with eyes following you? ;p
DeleteWow, that sounds amazingly fun, I doubt few people get that opportunity.I can feel me going èeeeeeeeeee.Despite many Americans including a good friend, not agreeing with his policy .I feel he had many good polices but he has beenup against many opponents.
ReplyDeleteLook like a fun trip.
It was really a very cool opportunity!
Deletethat is so, so cool!!!
ReplyDeleteIt really was!
DeleteWOW!! SO NEAT!
ReplyDeleteIt was a really cool outing.
DeleteWow, at the actual Whitehouse! Crazy!!!
ReplyDeleteI know, right!
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