Inside Kam Bowl yesterday, the Bus League was having its last bowling session. After coming to the alley every Friday for almost 30 years, the league was playing its last game on Week 26 of what would have ordinarily been a 40-week season.

"Everybody doesn't want to leave," said Leo Kozlowski, 60, a captain of the league from Nanakuli. "This is our second home already."

After about five decades, the popular 24-lane complex near the Kamehameha Shopping Center in Kalihi, also known as Mak Bowl, closed its doors last night, ending a way of life for bowlers from the area and around O'ahu.

The closure is another sign of the waning of a once-popular sport. With Kam Bowl gone, only four public alleys are left on O'ahu. One of them, Wai'alae Bowl near Kahala Mall, will close next February, displacing lots of bowlers, many of them older or retired. A worker said the bowling alley was closing because of a rent increase.

The management and owners of Kam Bowl could not be reached for comment.

While news of the closing had reached everyone in the alley yesterday, there was little visible indication that this would be Kam Bowl's last day.

The only clue may have been a few black T-shirts dangling from plastic hangers over the front desk that read in red and white letters: "Mak Bowl. Closed June 15, 2007. I was there!"

They were selling for $15.

The Kam Bowl Barber Shop, which is in the bowling alley, had signs listing manicure and massage tables, barber chairs and a door for sale.

David Jumawan, 75, a retired truck driver from Punchbowl, was wearing one of the shirts. His 125-person league, Classy Senior Bowlers, includes members from Honolulu, Waialua, Kane'ohe and Kailua. The league has been coming to Mak Bowl every Tuesday for 20 years.

"There used to be a lot of bowling alleys, but they starting disappearing," he said. "How come the city doesn't make bowling alleys? They make golf courses."

'I GUESS CANNOT HELP'

Larry Balmores, 74, a Kalihi resident and former member of the Classy Senior Bowlers, recalled when there were seven bowling alleys in the Kalihi area and named some of the departed: Kelly Bowl, Jet Lanes, Boulevard Bowl, Classic Bowl and Kalihi Bowl.

"I'm sorry this place is closing up, but I guess cannot help," said Balmores. His memories of coming to Kam Bowl date back to 1956.

With the bowling alley closed, he said he will probably bowl at Aiea Bowl, Leeward Bowl or Fort Shafter.

Across the bowling alley in Taro's Bowling Pro Shop, Lynne Nakamura, 49, of Mililani, was selling used bowling balls for $5 apiece. Nakamura's father, Taro Miyasato, ran the shop before he died last year. Her mother, Mary, died just last month.

"She just missed the closing," Nakamura said.

Inside the Kapiolani Coffee Shop, also in the bowling alley, orders were starting to stack up. Some were there to catch a quick bite to eat before a game; others dropped in for a taste of the restaurant's famous oxtail soup.

After serving fried rice and chicken curry to bowlers for 20 years, the coffee shop also will close, but reopen a little more than a mile away at City Square on Dillingham Boulevard.

Victoria Sanyo, 47, a cashier and waitress, said the restaurant was very busy with lots of familiar customers, but also with new faces who had heard about the closing.

"If I had plenty money I would keep this bowling alley open and keep senior citizens bowling here," she said, ringing up a customer.

Sul Belarmino, 60, had stopped in from Kane'ohe for a bowling league potluck.

'BEST' OXTAIL SOUP

"This is the best alley close to downtown," he said. "The oxtail soup is the best."

Kimberly Kawai, 43, who lives near Mak Bowl, stopped in yesterday afternoon to pick up a T-shirt and bowl one last time. Growing up in Kalihi, her memories of the place date back to "small-kid time," she said. Kawai said she will now go to Fort Shafter or Aiea Bowl.

"This is something you took for granted all these years and now it's gone," she said. "It's so sad."

Nearby, Ray Mendes, 65, a retired policeman from 'Alewa Heights, was giving instructions to a younger bowler.

"Now you have to go all the way to Leeward just to bowl," said Mendes, who is a member of the Bus League. "Kinda ridiculous, yeah?"