Reflections on a life of Pool

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

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Yeah I feel ya Jay,
Im sort of the same way. I walked away from Pool at a young age and bounced around awhile and finally found a job with benefits. I worked for 30 years and the last years I didn't believe in what I was doing but I did it until it was over. I will get a little retirement stipend its a stipend. Makes me wonder what I traded off at times. I have a few things but at times I wonder what I missed. I guess you just do what you felt compelled to do the most and you pick the pieces up best you can.

I guess that's why I took up what I did with Pool writing. Its been a challenge but it lets me reconnect with something I love to do. Between that and my long games of One Pocket.

It is a wonderful game and all the characters that make it up are really interesting. The experiences and memories are priceless so no regrets. :smile:

I'll play devils advocate. While I enjoy pool just as much as the rest of you, I find myself looking back and wondering what else I could have done instead of being in the pool room almost everyday for a period of about 10 years. Granted, I've been to some amazing places and have gotten to do many things that others aren't fortunate enough to do, I still wonder what if. Especially when you think of all the broke pro players, the players who die with nothing, the same low lifes at every pool hall across the US, etc etc etc. Now with the birth of my son, it really puts things into perspective. I play once, maybe twice a week. I still get into the occasional money game, but am glad that my life doesn't revolve around pool and action every single day anymore. I'm also fortunate enough that I have had the same job for the last 13 years, I make a decent living, have a great home (with a Gold Crown II) and have insurance for me and my son. While it was fun while it lasted, I'd prefer not to be one of the older guys in the pool room who is broke and who has been doing the same thing for the last 30+ years with nothing to show for it.


Charlie

I think it's very similar to people who decide they want to be artists; traveling the world chasing after their dream, painting or sketching whatever it is their specialty is, maybe talented enough to sell a few here and there to get to the next destination.

While Jay was pursuing his pool dreams, it seems he had some sort of a backup plan that allows him to do what he loves and still end up with a nice home and able to travel frequently and enjoy himself. Looks like he's done well.

I have always had a job since high school, way back when. Was heavy into pool throughout my teens, then during the next few Army years, up til I was about 30 years old.

I took an approx 15 year break and jumped back in with both feet about 10 years ago and I figure I'll be sticking with it until I can't do it any more.

No regrets over any of my decisions regarding pool - def many great memories and hoping for a few more to come. :thumbup:

best,
brian kc

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

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It is easy to have regrets and entertain the what if's but the truth is, we go through life who we are at that time. We change a number of times throughout our lives. The changes may be due to outside forces like a marriage or birth of a child. Our values change our priorities change we are in essence a different person, the seven ages of man as Shakespeare says

The Seven Ages of Man

William Shakespeare


All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.

At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.

Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.

The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

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Only thing that is missing is a female companion at home for the final ride.:grin-square:

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Click to expand...

Mr. Helfert, you hit the nail on the head with your post. THAT is what makes the game so special. nights alone, on my table, with the music playing, desperately trying to solve the never ending riddle that is the game we love. And in those moments we find peace.

Ones life can be measured in how we have spent it in regards to our heart. Some spend years of cumulative time just waiting in traffic driving to and from that career which society says is what is successful. But in the later years, no one says I'm glad I waited in traffic all that time. You've invested your time into what you're heart enjoyed and felt passionate about. THAT is a measure of success in itself.

That's why pool is unlike any other sport. If their wasn't a huge paycheck waiting, how many basketball and football players would put forth the training and effort? But in pool, it is truly about the love of the game and your relationship with it.

You are to be commended for your dedication, sir. The easy way would have been to become a doctor. You choose to follow your heart, and that is never easy and rarely done. Bravo.

My Dad always hated that I played so much pool as a teenager.

But years later, one thing that tickled him to no end was that while I was stationed in Spain, I won the base level 14.1 championship, which led to the Mediterranean championship, which led to the European championship. And when I'd call home and say, "Hey, Dad, I'm playing pool in Italy and then going to Carnivale in Venice" or later, "Hey, Dad, I'm going to Germany to play and then going to Octoberfest in Munich" he would just marvel and laugh out loud about where my pool playing was taking me.

It's been a weird, wonderful road and I have met people from every level of social strata from bums, to lawyers and judges, to working girls, firemen, street corner pharmacists, cops, made guys, bond fund managers, pimps, school teachers, three-card monte mechanics, professional athletes, and on and on and many of them, from all walks of life, have been or remain my friends.

But more than anything else, there's been the game. In sickness and in health, for better or worse, in stroke and out of stroke -- a beautiful game of brightly colored cloth, gleaming, polished balls, and perfect geometric dimensions. It's always been there, always willing to accommodate me, always whispering, "Come on, big boy. Show me what you got."

Lou Figueroa

Jay, seems to me you have a good life and are able to enjoy yourself and if you have good health what more could you ask out of life. From picture it looks like you have a comfortable home and a nice table to shoot on when you feel the urge. Maybe other people wanted more from you, but as I have found everyone needs to march to his on tune and people that march to someone else music are not a very happy person.---Smitty

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Click to expand...

I think this sums it up Jay! Well, at least for me anyway... :thumbup:

4:00 AM

About the perfect time of day to be reflective.

Some questions don't have answers. Some answers don't suffice.

It is was it is.

Thanks for letting us tag along on your travels, current and past, via your book(s) and posts.

take care



......That's a great looking table.. you must not have indoor cats.:grin:

Good for you Jay!!

I feel like I speak for MANY men when I say I had one foot in the pool scene for a long time and one foot at home working and raising a family.

Being married to the greatest woman I know who allows me to experience the pool world through overnights and weekends going to play hours away from home. She always wondered how I could walk into a pool room knowing no one and find a friend or 3 in there and have so many things in common with those folks. And how I could walk in with total disregard to my safety. Or go to someone's house I don't even know to play pool for hours on end cause we met through a mutual friend.

The stories, the pain, the discipline, the respect, and even the lessons this game has taught does not compare to much of the other stuff I learned in life. To me, they are much more valuable. While I am not out there living the life of a road man, I am still thankful I get to experience it like I do.It's funny too though. Many times I tell my wife stories about my travels thinking she doesn't listen. Then much later on I tell a story to her that references one of the same individuals from a previous story and she remembers and that makes me smile. Sometimes I think she lives vicariously through me. But she also made me keep my promises at home to be a husband and father to our 2 children. I can honestly say that I have done both exceptionally well.

You know, I look around and see other things going on and talk to people with other interests. Most of which talk about days gone by and how they wished they were involved in their respective interests much earlier on in their life. In it's "hey day" so to speak. While I totally understand where they are coming from, I feel as though for me pool is in it's hey day right now. Maybe it is or maybe it isn't...but either way I am happy to be a small part of it!!

Poor people spend their money on stuff; Wealthy spend their money on experiences!!



Gary

I have seen ALOT due to my time spent playing pool & learned alot! I think we all have given up alot also! You don't get something for nothing! The straight and narrow route of a Doctor in life leaves you "pray" to the Bernie Madoff's of the world. Leaves you pray to the "ENRON" corporation. Leaves you pray to the backstabbing & nepotism of corporate america. You end up working all your life to get a pension and a retirement. If your lucky and hit it big like Steve Jobs, you will have worked all your life away at the expense of "EVERYTHING" else. Making sense of it all is not possible!

Growing up around hustlers, con-artist, pimps, dealers, thieves, & millionaires in the pool room has been a great source for knowledge, jobs & resources. Street knowledge is undervalued, way too often! This knowledge has kept me safe and on my toes in numerous situations that would have been devastating. I thank the lord for having those friends and pool associates that protected me.

When it is all said and done, my family is all that matters! The measure of one's success should not be based on money or material items! It should be based on the people you were able to touch, elevate & educate. The experiences and good times you were able to afford yourself and the ones you love!

Jay Helfert has traveled the world! Experienced different foods and cultures! Played the best pool players the world has to offer! Owned businesses! Written books! Raised a family! Jay's post kind of diminished some of these "Great" things he has done. If you ask "Steve Jobs" family which he admits to neglecting to build his empire. If asked if they would have preferred he spent more time with them VS. his empire building? They would overwhelmingly say more quality time with their dad!!! He sacrificed that, by making the decisions and choices he made.

We all sacrifice something, due to the choices and decisions we make along the way. Some decisions sacrifice money, Some decisions sacrifice relationships! This concept in economics is called "Opportunity Loss"! Jay could have become a doctor instead of his pool career! He sacrificed one for the other. I am certain he enjoyed himself! He could have been a doctor and gotten sued for every penny! He would have been doing something his heart was not into for years! Sacrificing happiness for job prestige is just not a good thing!

KD

Ky Boy said:

Good for you Jay!!

I feel like I speak for MANY men when I say I had one foot in the pool scene for a long time and one foot at home working and raising a family.

Being married to the greatest woman I know who allows me to experience the pool world through overnights and weekends going to play hours away from home. She always wondered how I could walk into a pool room knowing no one and find a friend or 3 in there and have so many things in common with those folks. And how I could walk in with total disregard to my safety. Or go to someone's house I don't even know to play pool for hours on end cause we met through a mutual friend.

The stories, the pain, the discipline, the respect, and even the lessons this game has taught does not compare to much of the other stuff I learned in life. To me, they are much more valuable. While I am not out there living the life of a road man, I am still thankful I get to experience it like I do.It's funny too though. Many times I tell my wife stories about my travels thinking she doesn't listen. Then much later on I tell a story to her that references one of the same individuals from a previous story and she remembers and that makes me smile. Sometimes I think she lives vicariously through me. But she also made me keep my promises at home to be a husband and father to our 2 children. I can honestly say that I have done both exceptionally well.

You know, I look around and see other things going on and talk to people with other interests. Most of which talk about days gone by and how they wished they were involved in their respective interests much earlier on in their life. In it's "hey day" so to speak. While I totally understand where they are coming from, I feel as though for me pool is in it's hey day right now. Maybe it is or maybe it isn't...but either way I am happy to be a small part of it!!

Poor people spend their money on stuff; Wealthy spend their money on experiences!!



Gary

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Well stated Gary. I have met great people at pool rooms and you my friend are one of them.

Richard

The game has made me realize ....that life and pool are Exactly the same. If you work hard and play hard you totally understand/Jay has done both....I gotta go uttahere: hit some balls.

jay helfert said:

Just sitting here at 4 AM, looking at my pool table and wondering what happened in my life. I could have been a doctor like my father and my brother. I could have been many things, so why did I chose this path to follow. Maybe I was just too lazy to go to school all those years. I didn't really like being cooped up in a classroom. I enjoyed the open road and new adventures.

So here I am fifty years later, reflecting on what and who I am. I sit here in my easy chair; a pool table, my cue and the cue ball my only company. In the distance my little Bose radio chimes out soft classics. I like to dance around the table when I'm alone. I'm at peace, what more can one ask. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

Click to expand...

"Anyone who is really serious knows that life is only a big adventure."
-Albert Einstein

Congratulations, Jay, you're really serious.

In this game you can have both. I go play about anywhere I choose and I've had the chance to mingle with the pros for most of my life but I also have never tried to make my living at it or put my family and home in jeopardy . For me it's a good thing but I'm not selling out my family for it and I've seen many many people with family drop ridiculous amounts of money trying to get into action only to lose big money time after time. I look at these people and wonder how anyone could be so irresponsible when they have a family. It's not the game that drags them down. If it weren't pool it would be something else. It's the character not the game