May 7, 2021
WILKES-BARRE, PA Chacko’s Family Bowling Center, an early recipient of The Barstool Fund, was built during hard times. So when the coronavirus hit and lockdowns swept the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the family-owned business was ready to do whatever it took to survive.
What they have, a 38,000-square-foot bowling alley in Wyoming Valley, was built in 1998 after Hurricane Agnes demolished the other facility near the Susquehanna River that started in 1972. Elizabeth and John Chacko Sr., who were 45 and 44 at the time, had just signed the paperwork to start converting the business into their own.
To save his business, John Sr. took a boat and went out to the river. He piled sandbags on the building, but the levee broke, and it was still destroyed. The rest of the family was home, and a son with muscular dystrophy and a daughter with lupus were not about to enter a storm. So the Chacko sons, Daniel and John Jr., who were 15 and 17 at the time, were soon digging out m
Pennsylvania
United-states
Wyoming-valley
Commonwealth-of-pennsylvania
Pennsylvanians
Karla-harman
Kenley-keiper
Dave-portnoy
John-chacko-jr
Tom-wolf
Daniel-chacko
Anne-chacko-libby
Top O’ the Briefing
Just Shut It, COVID-Fear Freaks
Happy Friday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. I have a lot of questions about shepherd’s pie.
So…how are you spending your COVIDversary? It was a year ago today that everything really blew up. We were quickly plunged into a confused collective misery that we thought was going to last just a few weeks.
Bad joke is on us, right?
A year later I’m pretty comfortable saying that we will never return to whatever the heck we thought was normal. “The new normal” is a meaningless phrase. It has to happen for a while before it’s normal. We can’t simply slap a tag on it and say that’s what it is.
Minnesota
United-states
New-york
Arizona
California
Singapore
Americans
America
American
Gavin-newsom
David-ortiz
Pablo-picasso