Show Us Your Bowls
David Salazar
Hometown: Pasadena, CA
Bowls Maker: Henselite – Classic Deluxe
Previous Bowls
Size: 5 heavy
Color: Brown, Yellow, Orange and White
Logo: Knight on Horse
Year: 1977
Current Bowls
Size: 1 heavy
Color: Brown and Yellow
Logo: Wishbone
Year: 1987
Years Bowling: 23
If you look up Pasadena in the dictionary, you will see a picture of David Salazar.
The Korean War Veteran has lived in the area all of his 94 years. After graduating from John Muir High School, David enlisted in the National Guard. “A bunch of us from my high school signed up. We thought it would protect us from having to go to war,” Salazar said. That didn’t work. Salazar and his classmates were activated and shipped off to fight the communists in the Korean War.
Sargeant Salazar was squad leader for the 5152 Weapons Platoon. After returning from Korea, Salazar attended Cal State LA, where he was approached to play minor league baseball in Southern California. But the third baseman’s career was cut short: “I messed up my shoulder, and that was the end of that.” A career as a professional baseball player wasn’t a pipe dream for Salazar. His father signed a minor contract to play for the San Francisco Seals. His sister played for a barnstorming west coast softball team. And his nephew is former MLB All-Star Darrell Evans.
After graduating from Cal State LA, Salazar started a career in the aerospace industry. In the early 1970s, massive layoffs gutted the aerospace industry. Salazar had a mortgage and two kids and started looking for work, “I heard the Post Office was hiring. I thought it would be a nice job until I found something else. I ended up working there 32 years and retiring.”
It was someone on his route that suggested lawn bowling, Salazar explained, “Bill Carmichael said I should give it a try. I was looking for something to keep me active in my retirement, so in 2002 I joined, and I’ve been there ever since.” Salazar tells stories of when there was a parking lot inside Central Park for the lawn bowlers. “There was no need to run out to your car and put money in the meter. And we bowled 3 or 4 times a week.” “I like the exercise, and I like that it’s an aiming sport. My years playing baseball really help with my muscle control.”
David’s original bowls were brown Henselite size 5. “I just liked the design on them. It reminded me of the 1970s.” Recently Salazar has switched to a size 1 heavy, “You know when you get older, the larger bowls get a little harder to get down the green.”
If it’s Saturday, you can find David at the Historic Pasadena Lawn Bowling Club. He’ll be the one watering the roses.
Samuele Schoenberg
Hometown: Claremont, CA
Bowls Maker: Henselite Tiger
Size: 5
Color: green
Logo: bird on a wire
Years Bowling: 8
For Pasadena lawn bowler Sam Schoenberg, his lawn bowling experience, as with his bowls, comes in two parts.
As an environmental science student at UCLA, Schoenberg would often drive by the Santa Monica Lawn Bowling Club on Wilshire Blvd.
“I was captivated an intrigued by the game, but for months never bothered to stop and check it out,” says Schoenberg. All that changed in 2011. He finally stopped, made the time and learned the game. For a year he would bowl at the Douglas Park green. Schoenberg was a quick study. One of his favorite memories of his time in Santa Monica was when an Israeli bowler visited the green and took the young bowler under his wing, showing him the proper way to deliver a bowl.
School and life got in the way and Schoenberg found lawn bowling becoming a distant memory. Years passed without him walking on a green. In December of 2017, he started a new job in Pasadena and stumbled upon the Historic Greens of the Pasadena Lawn Bowling Club while on a walk near his new job.
“There is was, right in a neighborhood park, two lawn bowling greens and a clubhouse,” Schoenberg said. From that day, he was a regular. He would join the Pasadena Club, then a year later become a board member.
Schoenberg has two sets of bowls. His dark green Henselite Tigers are his main set. They have white lettering with an orange logo. “I call the logo ‘Bird on a Wire’ because it reminds me of the Leonard Cohen song of the same name,” Schoenberg says he was turned onto the bowls by club member Ted Bailey. “I mentioned to Ted I was looking for a narrower bowl. He said he would contact former club member Nick Anderson to see if he would sell his Tigers to me.”
Bailey was the go-between and the deal was made. Schoenberg says he likes the challenge of the Henselite Tigers, versus his old set of Henselite Classics, which have a wider bias. Schoenberg still has a soft spot for his Classic Henselite bowls, but for now, his set of choice are his Tigers.
Shawn Dellis
Hometown: St. Paul, MN
Bowls Maker: Henselite – Heavyweight
Size: 5
Color: Black with Yellow
Logo: Question Mark
Year: 1977
Years Bowling: 6
Take one carwash, add a Jackalope, mix it with a time-killing walk and you have the recipe for how Lawn Bowling entered Shawn Dellis’ life.
In November of 2017, Shawn was at the Pasadena Car Wash on Del Mar. To kill time, he walked to Central Park to see some of the booths at the Jackalope art fair.
“I work next to Central Park. And have been walking by that area for about 3 years and that was the first time I saw someone on the greens.”
Shawn used his Midwest charm and struck up a conversation through the fence asking about the sport. Then he made his way inside the fence to check it out. Two weeks later he was there for his first lesson.
“I got hooked right away. The muscle memory and timing part of the sport reminded me of rowing.” Dellis said the repetitive nature of the delivery was like grabbing an oar again.
Dellis also liked the meditation-like state of being outside, on grass early on a Saturday morning. “You get to be in the sunshine and compete in a gentleman’s sport while having views of palm trees and mountains. Not a bad way to start a Saturday.”
Dellis knows those mountains well. The St. Paul Minnesota native is on the Board of Directors of the Fire Lookouts for the Angeles National Forest. Once a month, the former Eagle Scout volunteers to spend the night in a tower keeping an eagle eye on the forest looking for potentially devastating flare-ups.
Dellis bowls with black Henselite – Heavyweights size 5. The bowls are from 1977, made when Shawn was 2 years old. “I just liked the question mark.” Dellis said, “I have a problem seeing similar colors. So, to have a distinct logo like a question mark was important for me to be able to identify my bowls.”
Dellis hated the old bowls at first but has since grown to love them. He has his eyes on a newer set. But for now, all he needs is palm trees the mountains and his old bowls.
Ted Bailey
Hometown: Boston, MA
Bowls Maker: Taylor- Ace / Taylor Redline SR
Size: 5 (blue set) / 4 (red set)
Color: Blue w/ off White lettering & Red w/ White Lettering
Logo: Triple Crescent Moon (blue) / Scales (red)
Year: 2007(blue) / 2017 (red)
Years Bowling: 20
It’s hard to imagine the Pasadena Lawn Bowling Club without Ted Bailey. The five-time club president, Singles, Triples and Skills Champion is a fixture on the Historic Greens of Pasadena. Be it verticutting the green, attacking weeds or shhh-ing other bowlers because he has the mat, for the past decade and a half this Boston native can be found at the corner of Del Mar and Raymond every Saturday morning.
“I like the fact you can improve your game through solo practice. And I love the feel of a bowl rolling.” It was past president Don Deise who introduced Ted to lawn bowling. “Don and I were friends before I started lawn bowling. He urged me to give it a try. He said I’d like it. I guess he was right.”
Ted, a retired engineer, took the game quickly. He found the physics of the bowls’ bias very appealing.
At the time, his adult children lived in Wisconsin. This prompted Ted to also join the Lake Park Lawn Bowling Club in Milwaukee.
When it came time to purchase his bowls, Ted asked fellow PLBC member Nick Anderson for advice. “Nick was a great bowler, so I asked him what brand I should buy. He said in England they think Taylor is the best. Then I noticed they were made in Glasgow, and I have an affinity for all things Scottish, especially single malts.”
At the time buying sets of new bowls was a 4-month process, and Ted didn’t want to wait that long. So he contacted bowler Howard Harris from San Diego. “He sold Taylors and said he had a new shipment coming in. I said I wanted Taylors, Blue size 5. I really didn’t specify the bias.” Ted would learn the Taylor Aces were great for the slower greens at Pasadena.
The blue Taylors are Ted’s main bowls. But when he’s on a faster green, he breaks out his newest set. Ted’s red Taylor Redline SRs were purchased on a trip to Glasgow (where we can only assume many single malts were consumed). Ted went to the Taylor mothership and bought them off the shelf in the bargain bin. “They were on sale for $150.” Ted said he had his eyes on these narrow bowls for a while. “I was playing in the Southwest Open and there was this young Australian who used the Redliners. He would pop the jack into the ditch just about every other end.” Ted would learn the Redliners weren’t sold in the U.S. So when Ted found himself at the Taylor factory, he had to pick himself up a set.
Ted is also a member of the Santa Barbara Lawn Bowling Club, where he bowls with a set of Drakes Pride Professionals. You can find him there on Thursdays. He won’t have his trademark Blue Taylor Aces. Just look for the tall bowler shhh-ing other bowlers when he’s on the mat.
Thom Shelton
Bowler: Thom Shelton
Hometown: Rogue River, OR
Bowls Maker: Henselite – Classic Deluxe
Size: 5
Color: Brown, Orange and White
Logo: Knight on Horse
Year: 1990
Years Bowling: 6
“Dream job, working from home…” If you find yourself humming the Frontier internet jingle, it’s most likely because you just spotted pitchman Thom Shelton on the Historic Greens of the Pasadena Lawn Bowling Club. Thom moved to Los Angeles from Portland, Oregon to pursue a career in acting. And like many actors before him, he spent several years delivering pizza in the LA area. That was until his big break in 2008 when he landed a gig in a Chevy Volt commercial. That car launched the EV revolution in the United States, and also launched Shelton’s career. He’s now a veteran of more than 30 commercials, including AM/PM stores.
Besides acting, Shelton is also a musician, who has played in bands back in his home state of Oregon. Shelton can be found most Saturdays on the green. “I really like the meditative state. You can kind of shut down for a couple hours and just concentrate on the game.”
Thom came to the game through PLBC member Michael Carian. “I was looking for a place to hold my birthday party, and Mike suggested lawn bowling.” Shelton said, “From then I was hooked.”
Shelton has become one of the better bowlers in the club, known for his consistent and accurate lead skills as well as being cool under pressure when wearing the skip’s hat. He and David Salazar made it to the club doubles finals before losing to Marc Rich and Graham Roby.
Thom bowls with a set of Henselite Classic Deluxe, size 5. “I wanted to buy a set of size 4s from the club, but I grabbed these 5s instead and loved them. They kinda spoke to me.” Shelton said, “I also liked the color scheme. It just screams 1970s, and I like that vibe.”
Shelton’s bowls were once owned by former PLBC member Peter Van Kyran. Shelton keeps a picture of Van Kyran in his case. “He was the original owner. I’m just taking care of them for now.”
