ADAMS TWP — Bob and Joan Crawford were born together, grew up together — and bowl together.

The 83-year-old twins began bowling at Mars Lanes when the facility opened as Logan Lanes in 1959. The house has never left and neither have the Crawfords.

They bowl in two leagues a week and have never bowled regularly in any other facility. The two live in Adams Township and neither has ever been married.

“This is the way bowling has always been for us,” Bob Crawford said of the manual scoring and wooden lanes. “This place has never changed. We wouldn’t want it to change.”

Mars Lanes is the only bowling house in Butler County that has not gone to computerized scoring. No other bowling facility in the county has wooden lanes, either.

“It’s like it’s preserved in time,” Joan said of the lanes. “It’s nostalgic. There’s a charm in coming here.”

Both bowlers rolled a 700-series here in 1966. Bob rolled a 718, Joan a 712.

Neither has rolled a 700 since.

Both bowlers averaged 180 or above years ago. Bob is averaging 160 today, Joan a 154.

Logan Lanes was sold to John and Jeanne Utz in 1989. It was renamed Mars Lanes at that time and was managed by Gary and Ruth Geller.

The Gellers, 1973 Mars graduates who have lived in the community all of their lives, bought the facility in 2002.

“It’s a lot of maintenance, these wooden lanes,” Ruth Geller said. “When bowlers loft a ball here, it kills us. We can’t allow long lofts on this wood. A few bowlers have left here because of that.

“It takes a lot of sanding to keep these lanes operable, but wooden lanes are what our bowlers want. We’re part of this community and we’re here to serve them.”

There is no late-night cosmic bowling or loud music played at Mars Lanes. Geller said that most of the bowlers who come here know how to keep score.

“When a group comes in here that doesn’t know how, we’re always on hand to teach them,” she said.

John Utz considers Mars Lanes “a community landmark” and stepped in to buy the house to keep it that way.

“It wasn’t my love for the sport or anything like that ... We just didn’t want to see it go away,” Utz said. “There was a chance the place was going to close up if we didn’t buy it.

“We couldn’t have that. This place is a piece of Mars’ history. Some of the same people have been gathering here for years.”

One of them, Bill Shirk, 92, bowled last year while using a cane and wearing an oxygen tank, with a spare tank on hand when the first one ran out.

“This is old-time bowling, how the game should be,” Jeanne Utz, John’s wife, said. “It’s more than nostalgic. The good ole’ days have never left here.

“It’s the old-fashioned fellowship that keeps people coming back.”

The Crawfords served as emergency replacements for a Mars Lanes team at the national bowling tournament in Reno, Nev., this summer. Bob averaged 149 for nine games while Joan averaged 151.

Both finished in the money. Joan won $127 as her team finished 30th out of 150 teams in its division. It was the first time she’s ever bowled in nationals.

It may also be her last.

“There were 50 lanes there, so much noise, so many people ... I was really nervous,” she said. “It was all so different.

“It made me appreciate what we have here. this little antiquated house ... It’s ours.”