L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
Every so often it’s nice to go back and reflect on our sometimes misspent youth.
In my case the year was 1963 I was a freshman in high school and remember being in my high school history class and the teacher assigning a chapter to be read about the American Revolution. What the teacher didn’t know was that in my big opened history book was Mosconi’s little red book neatly tucked inside the reading of the chapter to be read. When the class was over I didn’t have a clue what that chapter said about the revolution but could recite chapter and verse of Mosconi’s book.
When 3 o’clock rolled around, as Chuck Berry said it was time to put the burden down. School was out for the day and some students went to the library to study others participated in afternoon sports or other school activities. My internal GPS led me in one direction and Only one direction and that was straight down to Dorothy and Jimmy Wise’s Sequoia Billiards in Redwood City Ca.
Once entered, nirvana! There were the usual cast of characters, George ‘The Dry Dog’ Wilbur, Paul ‘Bone Rack’ Teshure Mike ‘Shorty’Dixon everyone down there some kind of nickname whether they wanted it or not. It was there that I got to see Mosconi, Caras, and Joe Procita perform their magic on the pool table the likes of which I could only dream of.
And then there was old white haired Jimmy Wise behind the counter dutifully reading the afternoon paper through his Coke bottle thick glasses.
I would walk over to him and say “Hi Jimmy can I have my cue and a table. Table time was only $1.00 per hour in those days so we got to play quite a bit for not too much money. Jimmy would lumber over to a revolving cue storage rack where all the personal cues were kept. With a spin of the rack your designated number would roll around until your number appeared in front. My number was A8, that’s where my Hoppe cue (pictured below) was kept.
To assuage my guilt feelings about not paying enough attention to my school studies, I still remember Jimmy telling me, “pocket billiards is an education in itself!" That was good enough for me, Jimmy and Tugboat were the only professors I wanted to learn from anyway!
Looking back, the fact that I was able to get through high school and even some college afterward is truly amazing! Those were some great times and I wouldn’t trade them for the world!
In my case the year was 1963 I was a freshman in high school and remember being in my high school history class and the teacher assigning a chapter to be read about the American Revolution. What the teacher didn’t know was that in my big opened history book was Mosconi’s little red book neatly tucked inside the reading of the chapter to be read. When the class was over I didn’t have a clue what that chapter said about the revolution but could recite chapter and verse of Mosconi’s book.
When 3 o’clock rolled around, as Chuck Berry said it was time to put the burden down. School was out for the day and some students went to the library to study others participated in afternoon sports or other school activities. My internal GPS led me in one direction and Only one direction and that was straight down to Dorothy and Jimmy Wise’s Sequoia Billiards in Redwood City Ca.
Once entered, nirvana! There were the usual cast of characters, George ‘The Dry Dog’ Wilbur, Paul ‘Bone Rack’ Teshure Mike ‘Shorty’Dixon everyone down there some kind of nickname whether they wanted it or not. It was there that I got to see Mosconi, Caras, and Joe Procita perform their magic on the pool table the likes of which I could only dream of.
And then there was old white haired Jimmy Wise behind the counter dutifully reading the afternoon paper through his Coke bottle thick glasses.
I would walk over to him and say “Hi Jimmy can I have my cue and a table. Table time was only $1.00 per hour in those days so we got to play quite a bit for not too much money. Jimmy would lumber over to a revolving cue storage rack where all the personal cues were kept. With a spin of the rack your designated number would roll around until your number appeared in front. My number was A8, that’s where my Hoppe cue (pictured below) was kept.
To assuage my guilt feelings about not paying enough attention to my school studies, I still remember Jimmy telling me, “pocket billiards is an education in itself!" That was good enough for me, Jimmy and Tugboat were the only professors I wanted to learn from anyway!
Looking back, the fact that I was able to get through high school and even some college afterward is truly amazing! Those were some great times and I wouldn’t trade them for the world!
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