I remember the first time I saw a pool table. It was just inside the door of the building below in 1955. I was fascinated by the tables but I was too shy to play. I went up to the barkeep and said, "Some vanilla ice cream, please." A free copy of Willie Mosconi's autobiography to the first person who can identify the building.
My next memory of pool was in the 1960s when ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcast tournaments, usually straight pool. What game they were playing was not important to me. What really impressed me was how they controlled the white ball. The only player I really remember from that time was Cisero Murphy.
I started playing when I was 16 when a friend got a Sears fold-up table for his birthday. I liked it because I could beat him at it while he crushed me at basketball. Before long I played too well for our games to be interesting and I moved on to 9-foot tables. I saw "The Hustler" about that time.
I used to sit in English class and imagine how full I would have to play one head off another to put the second one in the corner. I'd practice my bridges during class, too, both right- and left-handed. English was not my best subject. My main teacher was Willie Mosconi's "Winning Pocket Billiards" -- nobody around taught pool.
I also remember the first time I saw someone really draw the cue ball. The rec center had just recovered the tables and a good player -- which meant he could run three or four balls at a time :clapping: -- played an angled draw shot and the cue ball visibly curved. I had no idea such things were possible. I have enjoyed spinning the ball ever since.
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Is it in Hamilton New York?