What an absolute blow to the community.

Yesterday, a beloved part of many people’s childhood slash lives was burned to the ground… I’d hate to guess what caused this to happen, but it had to of been arson. 100% Arson.

It could have been a disgruntled employee, or maybe they were fired and just love a good pun (get it? Like they got fired then burnt the place down with fire… Get it?)

Maybe the pizza oven wasn’t cleaned properly and it was all an accident but that’s not fun to talk about. Nor likely as the entire building was on fire. I’m not a volunteer fireman or anything but something is up for sure.

Most likely, insurance fraud – the number one cause of arson…. coincidentally….woah now that’s fun to talk about. I don’t know who owns Nortel Lanes but I also do that care. This is probably what happened. Again, I’m no expert.

None the less, a perfectly good bowling alley has been burnt to the ground. That place was an institution! So many memories- from learning how to play the game as a little tike, weekend hangs with the boys growing up, bringing girls on dates, family gatherings, to present day of getting shit faced with your buddy’s and everything in-between. Nortel Lanes has always been there.

So as of now, we don’t know what’s going to happen to Nortel. Are they going to rebuild it, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes? It is a landmark in a town that really doesn’t have a ton of stuff to do for kids (or adults for that matter…besides drinking) are they going to leave an empty lot there for a while? That’s my guess.

This doesn’t help the fact that Monroe is starting to look like a “old” Detroit (note “old” cause Detroit’s coming back…) with all the abandoned buildings… La-Z-Boy’s OG HQ – abandoned, Carrabba’s – abandoned, probably more I can’t think of, oh wait yeah, pretty much the entire FrenchTown Square Mall (besides Phoenix Theater, Taco Bell and Planet Fitness) You get it.

So R.I.P in peace to Nortel Lanes, you’ll be missed.