Anybody else out there like me. I’ll bet there is. When I was around 10 yo. I saw my first real pool table at a firehouse that my Dad was delivering ice to. It was a 10’ Brunswick. After watching him run a quick rack of balls I believe I was hooked on the game even though I never got to play on the table.
When I got home a friend and myself found a good 4’x8 piece of plywood…so we borrowed it. We cut out the pockets and glued and nailed 1” sides all around. We used automobile door weather stripping for cushions and large marbles for balls. I had hours and hours of fun on that table. I had everybody’s school lunch money for a 4 square block area before a month was up. When my Mom and Dad started getting phone calls and knocks on the door from parents complaining about their kids were losing their lunch money to me my Dad broke the table into pieces. But a few weeks later he and some friends brought home 9’ Brunswick for the basement.
From that day on I played hours of pool a week until my health got me in 2003. Over 50 years almost never a week w/o hitting balls. I really think I could have made pro player if I continued to work on my game like I did the first 5 years of playing. But I saw that as I started gambling and winning more money than I made with two paper routes and odd jobs like shoveling snow, raking leaves and cutting lawns I really stopped trying to get better. I saw from a young age that if you became a top player you had to bump heads with other top players or give out spots that you had to play your ass off showing everyone around your true speed. To me that and practicing didn’t make any sense.
I always worked a job or had some business of my own or picking numbers and book for the local book. I made a good living part time playing pool, sometimes more than I made on my job or business for 50 years and hardly ever had to show my top speed or work on my game. Anyone else figure they could have played top speed but quit really practicing when the money was so easy to get as an “A” player or low speed shortstop? Johnnyt
When I got home a friend and myself found a good 4’x8 piece of plywood…so we borrowed it. We cut out the pockets and glued and nailed 1” sides all around. We used automobile door weather stripping for cushions and large marbles for balls. I had hours and hours of fun on that table. I had everybody’s school lunch money for a 4 square block area before a month was up. When my Mom and Dad started getting phone calls and knocks on the door from parents complaining about their kids were losing their lunch money to me my Dad broke the table into pieces. But a few weeks later he and some friends brought home 9’ Brunswick for the basement.
From that day on I played hours of pool a week until my health got me in 2003. Over 50 years almost never a week w/o hitting balls. I really think I could have made pro player if I continued to work on my game like I did the first 5 years of playing. But I saw that as I started gambling and winning more money than I made with two paper routes and odd jobs like shoveling snow, raking leaves and cutting lawns I really stopped trying to get better. I saw from a young age that if you became a top player you had to bump heads with other top players or give out spots that you had to play your ass off showing everyone around your true speed. To me that and practicing didn’t make any sense.
I always worked a job or had some business of my own or picking numbers and book for the local book. I made a good living part time playing pool, sometimes more than I made on my job or business for 50 years and hardly ever had to show my top speed or work on my game. Anyone else figure they could have played top speed but quit really practicing when the money was so easy to get as an “A” player or low speed shortstop? Johnnyt
