It is indeed regional. Until not too many years it was almost impossible to find a ten pin bowling alley in the area. These days I just assume any new bowling a

It is indeed regional. Until not too many years it was almost impossible to find a ten pin bowling alley in the area. These days I just assume any new bowling alley is tenpin & not candlepin. We moved to MA in the mid-80s from the midwest. We bowled a lot as a family. But the candlepin was such an unexpected difference that we stopped bowling as much. Never really got used to it.