Wow, amazing, thank you all.
Hi guys, I have an old JOSS. I will try to post pics later today.
First I want to introduce myself a little. I found this forum some time back and occasionally found it again and again while looking into different matters about cues. I wouldn't even say I was a lurker. It took a long time before I really understood what this place was. It was while researching Prulhiere cues that I realized the cue makers are here. The funniest thing is that for a long time I thought it had something to do with Arizona! (Arizona = AZ) Yeah.....OK I am not so bright I guess.
I got my seventies JOSS for $35.00 in 1985 from a friend who had no idea what it was....but then neither did I except I knew is was a "good cue". The guys I was shooting with in a friend's basement could hardly see it was better than their K-Mart cues. Oh, and it came with a black Fellini case and two shafts.
I was spending that year bouncing around trying to figure out what to do after dropping out of my first year of college. My pool game improved. The following year I went back to college but was really strapped for cash. I started playing pool for cash here and there but was really just a banger. As my game improved so did my income. That was great motivation to play. For the next few years I played 3-6 hours a day seven days a week. The pool room at my college had about 15 Gold Crowns for a dollar an hour. My game improved....a lot.
They wanted me on the college pool team but I figured I couldn't eat trophies. The closest I came was when I let one of the players hold my cue for a newspaper photo after she won a tournament. I just couldn't let her get a pic with a house cue.
In 1990 I almost sold it to a guy. I am from Pittsburgh and a local guy was working on cues and making a few of his own. I almost sold it to him in partial trade for one of his cues.....he seemed to really want my cue as I stood there in his shop on Route 51 south of Pittsburgh. His name? Paul Mottey....you may have heard of him.
Around the same time I totaled my car. Rear ended my chemistry professor on that same highway. I was taken to the hospital, treated, and released but banged up and dazed. Two days later I realized the JOSS was in the car that was towed away. It was Sunday and the lot was closed so I climbed the fence to get to my car....but no JOSS. When I returned to school I went to see my prof, the one I hit. He said "by the way I have something for you, it looked important". He pulled the Fellini out from under his desk.
There have been other close calls as well, but you get the idea.
That cue helped pay for my first degree, which I earned in 1991....in Biology/Pre-Med. When I went off to med school it went with me, but I never had the kind of time to play like I used to. In spite of that the JOSS remained a very special part of my life through many travels. I have played in fifteen states and nine countries with that cue, including Europe.
Of course I now understand what that cue is, but it is much more than that to me. It was a little nicked up when I got it but in all these years I have never put one scratch on it myself. It is beyond due for a wrap clean and refinish....the dings could all be raised out I think. Many times I considered sending it to Dan Janes. I even talked to him a couple times about it. But I just couldn't part with it for that long or risk it being lost in shipping. That cue is like my right arm. I bought a jump cue in 1992 from Dan and have two other newer JOSS cues that I tried to use to retire the old one...which didn't work. I keep those anyway. I do not sell cues, I only buy. I also have a Meucci Original that needs restored as well as three Audricks that I bought on a lark in 2007 (good shooters). There are a few other cues in the stable as well, some I bought for sentimental reasons after recalling seeing them in my younger days and some as a sort of collectible. But the JOSS....ah the JOSS.
I have played a little here and there over the years. Last year I walked into a hole-in-the-wall bar with a couple of friends and there was a ratty old pool table. The guy beating everybody was pretty good. My friends egged me on until finally one of them drove me back to my place to get a cue. It was the original JOSS that I grabbed. When I went back I picked up the next game and never gave up that table the rest of the night. He was playing with a Predator and I didn't even know what that was except I thought it was an import and looked on it with a little disdain.
That cue put me back in school and kept me there. It has been there through all of my trials and tribulations. It outlasted my first marriage and saw my first child grow up. It went to medical school with me and saw me graduate. It was my best psychiatrist when life was kicking my butt, my best friend when I was alone, my income when I was poor. It helped make me who I am.
Things come full circle. As Fast Eddie said at the end of The Color Of Money....."I'm Back!" ...and so is my JOSS.
When I die, bury with my JOSS and a cube of chalk.
If you read all this thanks for hanging in there. It's good to know I am not alone....you see....I have a cue problem.....Pics will follow.