A very eventful day: Joe Biden wins the presidency, a trip to 110 Grill Athol, and a little bit of a detour
Today has been a very eventful day. First, Joe Biden officially won the 2020 US presidential election with 290 electoral votes, beating Trump's 214 electoral votes. This actually happened while I was out with Julie going to 110 Grill in Athol, MA. Here's how the day played out: I got up at 6AM, ate breakfast around 7AM, then at 11AM, Julie and I left to 110 Grill in Athol. (about an hour away) Around 11:45AM, when we were in Orange, MA, (about 20 minutes from Athol) Julie got a text on her iPhone from one of her contacts, saying that Biden had won the election, and then I asked her to pull up the election results and sure enough, Biden had 290 electoral votes (20 over 270, an automatic win of the election!) and Trump had 214 electoral votes. Biden had won the election! So I made a video of Julie and I reacting to this win (we both support Biden), barely 2 minutes later! After this excitement (don't worry, we pulled over on the side of the road when the text first appeared, and didn't get back on the road until we finished our car celebration), we got back on the road, and within 10-15 minutes, we were in Athol pretty much at 12. But the GPS took us a different way, and instead of directly taking us to 110 Grill on the outskirts of Athol, the GPS took us to downtown Athol, as we then realized that instead of typing "110 Grill Athol", we only typed "Athol MA", so it took us to downtown Athol, so we explored that instead. And that was how we realized that Athol is a much bigger town than we thought, similar in size to Holyoke (pop 40K, 2019) and Northampton (pop 28K, 2019) even though Athol only has 11,584 residents (2010 census), with the city containing mills and a very natural scenery, with waterfalls around the mills, a beautiful town, that is sadly somewhat outdated and rundown. While exploring downtown Athol, we found an abandoned building right in downtown at 469 Main Street. Why am I being so specific? I am being specific because this building at 469 Main Street, Athol, MA is a very interesting building with an interesting history. Now, let me give you a brief history of 469 Main Street, Athol MA.
469 Main Street, Athol MA: Haunted bowling attraction?
History: The building opened on November 12, 1930 as the York Theater of Athol. The building spent many years as a movie theater, but it closed by the 1960s. After this, the building had many uses between the 1960s and the 2000s, first as a temporary courthouse, then a dance center, and finally, a teen center, before converting into a candlepin bowling center sometime around 2009 before closing in 2012 as the building's final use. It has been vacant since 2012, and I haven't been inside, but it must be pretty bad, because by 2019, the building was condemned. Also, this building is listed on haunted attraction websites due to events such as "a bomb blowing up inside the building and the ones that died from the blast lingering around the building, a woman commiting suicide via hanging in the building and her spirits being seen in the balcony, children's laughter inside the building, footsteps and objects moving on their own. Ooh, pretty creepy... (d*mn, should've made this in October and not November...)
Ready? Here are some photos of this haunted building.
Unknown dates of capture, most likely between 2007 and 2012 due to the bad quality of these captures and the presence of the candlepin bowling alley. Also, the lights are on in the building, but not in the alleys and there are a lack of people. Could be taken after 2012 due to the lack of people, but these pictures were most likely taken before opening time between the years of 2007 and 2012 as the building does look in good condition, but has been condemned since 2019, which makes it illegal to go inside, therefore these pics were definitely taken before opening time between the years of 2007 and 2012.
Now, here's some more recent pictures:
These pictures were taken October 22, 2019. As you can now see, if you look closely, the building now has a red X on it, which signifies that the building is condemned, and no one is allowed inside, not even firefighters; this happens when a building is considered "structurally unsound" or "structurally unsafe". This is not surprising, most often, after 5-10 years of a building's abandonment, the building usually becomes structurally unsound after this point of time. (I'll call it the 5-10 building rule) In this case, 7 years of abandonment occurred before the building was condemned sometime in 2019, after being abandoned in 2012. Photo credit: Dez2 on Cinema Treasures (Creative Commons license, distribution allowed with credit under copyright law) (http://cinematreasures.org/members/edes2001/photos)
And the most recent pictures from my visit today to Athol, November 7, 2020: (I will not copyright them, they are in the public domain for your pleasure)
In these pictures, everything seems very interesting. The building is condemned, yet there's no fence or blockage around it to prevent people from getting injured if bricks or other debris fall from the building, there's a car parked right in front of the building, which I wouldn't do for safety reasons; cars have gotten damaged for parking in front of buildings like these and bricks falling from the building onto cars, very risky move there, driver of Athol MA... What else is interesting? Everything from 2007-2012 is still on the outside of the building: phone numbers for the bowling alley and the restaurant, the old sign is still up, and the old specials for the old bowling alley (senior specials, snack bar, etc.) (snack bar, years expired Lays, no thanks!) What this building really shows is the extreme decline of candlepin bowling in the Northeast; from 2010 to 2020, many Western Massachusetts candlepin alleys closed, Holyoke's candlepin alley shuttered in 2015 although the sign is still there, Springfield's candlepin alley inside the Springfield Plaza closed in May 2012 and became a Planet Fitness by 2015. (Planet Fitness is basically the new business that is moving into abandoned/vacant buildings, it's happened a lot in my area, I know, Northampton's former Staples became a Planet Fitness, and at the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, there is now a Planet Fitness there, Chicopee's old candlepin alley on Memorial Drive also became a Planet Fitness, and Worcester's last candlepin alley, the "birthplace of candlepin bowling", the Colonial Bowling Center, permanently shuttered in May 2020 due to COVID-19. It's a sad end to what used to be a very popular sport in the Northeast, 10 pin just completely took over, too bad... Maybe Colonial will become a Planet Fitness?) What really stinks about Planet Fitness is that they must be STRUGGLING right now with the COVID-19 pandemic, opening many locations in the 2010s before having to shutter them all in 2020.
Okay, ENOUGH about 469 Main Street, Athol MA and candlepin bowling; time to FOCUS!
So after driving through downtown Athol, we basically turned around and tried going the way we came to downtown Athol, however, the GPS wanted us to go the way we WERE going driving past downtown Athol. So for about 10 minutes, we basically fought the GPS by going the way we remembered, but after about 10 minutes, Julie gave in and we started going the way the GPS WANTED us to go, and after 10-15 minutes, we arrived at 110 Grill Athol. We got there, and the patio seating was pretty much full... We ate outside because it was, I'm not kidding, 75 DEGREES. Yes, 75 DEGREES in NOVEMBER... This isn't the first time that this has happened though. In November 2015, there was a day that was about 73 DEGREES. Global warming... Not surprising that the patio was full in THIS weather; forgot to mention that it was SUNNY as well! Crazy to think that we had our first snow the past weekend on October 30... Summer weather in almost winter, incredible... Back to 110 Grill: We got inside, and we asked for patio seating and a gluten free menu, so we got outside at the edge of the restaurant, far away from people. (except for bywalkers going in and out of the restaurant) Then I went to use the restroom, and came back with my diet coke and gluten free bread and butter on the table which I had previously asked for, not what I wanted to happen, I wanted that to NOT be there, and the bread was somewhat cold because of me going to the bathroom. (really, you couldn't have waited to go, body?) But I still ate the bread, and a little while after, got my 110 Classic Cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and then got a second gluten free bread and butter roll. This time, I DIDN'T wait; I ate it immediately while it was hot and then I ate the 110 Classic Cheeseburger and the sweet potato fries, which was all very good. By the end of the meal, the server asked if we wanted dessert. NO! I was WAY too full by this time, and my stomach was hurting! (don't worry, I wasn't glutened, I was just full) It was worth the hour (1h 30m actually because of the "stop" in downtown Athol) long drive! Then we came back home via a different route than when we went to 110 Grill Athol in June for the first time; we took MA-2 to I-91 instead of MA-2 to US-202 to MA-9, and we got a much different ride than before, way more beautiful! We actually wanted to go in October to see the northern Massachusetts foliage, but that never happened... We did however see foliage when we went to Mike's Maze in Sunderland in October. (The Time Machine -> 2020 -> October for that post) After 110 Grill, we went home on the beautiful ride that is MA-2, first as a highway, then turning into a regular road in Erving MA, with the last 10 ish miles having beautiful scenery, including lakes and nature, before MA-2 turns into I-91 South in northern Massachusetts in Greenfield (going south from exit 27) and then getting back to my parents house! I got back around 3:15pm after leaving at around 11:15am and was at my dad's until about 4:15pm, when Mom came home and I surprised her by making a video of the two of us reacting to Joe Biden winning the election 290 to 214! After that, I had dinner and at 8PM, we watched the inauguration speech of president-elect Joe Biden which was AWESOME, and after that, the day was pretty much done! It was an amazing day, and I can't wait for the next one!
Pictures from the day:
I wonder how this building is doing in the time of COVID-19...
Just a quick stop at Market Basket. Julie needed groceries, so we stopped there. I already ate at McDonald's, so I already ate lunch, and therefore didn't stop at 110 Grill.
Almost there...
HA HA, FOOLED YOU! I DID GO TO 110 GRILL... AND WE DIDN'T GO TO MARKET BASKET, NOR DID WE GO TO MCDONALD'S! 🤣🤣🤣
Couldn't help myself. Here is a second gluten free bread roll I asked for!
The view from 110 Grill Athol. Beautiful!
I could also get my haircut and a smartphone here...
Nice rocks...
Beautiful scenery...
VERY GOOD!
And for the videos:
And finally, Joe Biden's victory speech! #Biden2020 💙💙💙
(November 7, 2020)
It's been an amazing day, and I loved it! Congrats Biden!
Updated 11/10/20.
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