Never witnessed an altercation in a formal pool hall or a roadhouse in East Texas (back in the 60’s). Not an argument over a game. Biggest controversy was whose up next on a table where quarters were lined up on a coin operated table.
In that same Brunswick Billiards I mentioned above, on April 4th, 1968 I arrived just at the time that the MLK assassination had been announced over the radio. I was the only White guy in an otherwise all-Black pool room, but that wasn't a problem, since they all knew me. But what was totally bizarre was that while about half the players there were crying, or on the verge of it, many of the others were just laughing at them. This in turn set off one of my friends, and just as he was about to get it on with one of the mockers, I grabbed him and suggested we go outside and walk it off.When I was at FSU I played mostly at Pastimes on Tharpe street. It was located next to a day labor place and was surrounded by woods in the back. Pastimes would cash the paychecks of the day labor guys and they’d typically spend the evening drinking and then crash in the woods and do it all over the next day. A really cool old dude would come in early and clean the pool room and he’d serve coffee to the guys waiting to see if they could get some work next door. One time the old guy was in the walk in freezer and looked up and saw two guys fighting. It ended up with one guy pinning the other on top of a 9’ Brunswick stabbing him. Fortunately the pastime employee had the cordless phone in his pocket, so while he called the police he barricaded himself inside the freezer. The crazy bastard looked directly at my buddy 3 or 4 times but never stopped stabbing. When the cops showed up the guy was still stabbing and had basically beheaded his victim. It turned out the guy was accidentally released from a mental institution in Jacksonville and wound up in our backyard. I saw the cloth the next day and it was gruesome.
In true pool hall fashion they recovered it and life went on. Well, not for everyone I guess.
Your honor, let the record reflect that I only believe 64 percent of what I've read in this thread.
Use to play 5 or 6 ball... (short game on 9ball).... wanna know how many games I can lose in 15-20 minutes.I said, "20 or 25 minutes".
Defense attorney, "How many games did you play?"
I said, "Three"
Now 63. You finished the shot???My favorite pool hall was in a rough area. Let me rephrase that, my favorite pool hall was in a ROUGH area. Long before official concealed carry it seemed over half the people in there were carrying.
Most were carrying very casually and guns were falling regularly. Half junk guns, they often went bang when they hit the floor. Seemed we averaged about one accidental discharge of a gun a month.
I go to the counter to get a beer for the three of us shooting pool to find the counterman, drunk on his ass, and another drunk playing with a revolver. A long narrow place as pool halls should be. We were playing on the table against the back wall, about sixty feet from the counter. A bullet could go anywhere in 360 degrees plus high or low, we only took up a couple degrees each, seemed fairly safe. This wasn't my first beer!
A few minutes later the gun went off. I was down on a shot so I pocketed the ball before checking out what happened. There were always a few tense moments when you waited to hear if there was return fire. Nope, just one of the idiots at the counter. Nobody hit, all good. Then I noticed the electrical switch box in the wall by the table had a fresh .38 hole in it. Still, a miss was a miss and the shot had missed me several feet. Back to pool.
Yeah, but the crazy thing is which 64% is true. My phone lit up like a Christmas tree one morning. "Did you hear about ..." The story was a little to wild to be true and made no sense besides. Logic, commonsense, said it had to be BS. Then the guy's best friend called me. "Did you hear about Jimmy?"
"I heard something but it is too wild to be true."
"It's true."
Hu
I guess Vinnie's family didn't eat much polenta.This was also my thought
Now 63. You finished the shot???
You might be Batman.Yeah, I always finished the shot just to prove I could if I was shooting when a gun went off. Waiting to hear if there were more shots anyway. This was in the days before fairly clean carpeted pool rooms and I was waiting to hear if there were more shots to decide whether to roll across the pool table and hit the floor or straighten up.
Looking back, there was very little violence in the old pool halls. Jesse had that pool hall by then. A retired oilfield roughneck and a monster arm wrestler. He had a four feet or longer piece of pulpwood behind the bar maybe six inches in diameter. He had carved a handle in one end. I asked him if he ever brought it out from behind the counter. He said he had a few times. It was long standing policy though, we protected our turf.
Outsiders that didn't know the score were the only ones foolish enough to start trouble and when they found the entire rest of the hall backing up the owner or worker there was little reason to worry. Before Jesse there was an absentee owner, Lambert, and a lady running the place. All she had to do was make her wishes known. I was there several times when somebody thought they might come in and take over. Four guys that were on the front line of a local college football team thought they would take over. As already mentioned the hall was long and narrow with the counter most of the way back from the street door.
These four guys head to the counter. Nothing is said, they are ignored. When they realized they were getting ignored from behind the counter they look over their shoulders. Roughly two dozen of us had eased over, over half of us toting house cues. The football players hadn't been hit on the head that many times, they eased towards the door without a word spoken!
Hu
The other 48% is just woofingYour honor, let the record reflect that I only believe 64 percent of what I've read in this thread.
You might be Batman.
"You kept shooting all the shots?"
"Well the balls kept lining up!"