BigTown Billiards Atlanta 1954
- Thread starter GoldenFlash
- Start date
GoldenFlash
Banned
I read a review of it on Amazon. Amazing!
I remember the black rack boy (called Negro or "colored" back then) "William". That's on the square, he was a real person.
William was one of the best at racking on the sneak so you had the best of it. Especially in one pocket....he'd get his fingertips wet while removing some empty beer bottles from the chairs and apply the moisture to the appropriate balls and when the other guy broke, they would lay there like tons of bricks while the cue ball went merrily on its way to a scratch in the upper corner. You gotta admit, that's a helluva joint.
All you had to do was put a dollar in a pocket of the table behind you, give William the sign, and you were given a huge edge.
He'd also help you by putting red balls (15 red ball game) back up on the snooker table when a hustler was putting out huge spots to some drunk railroad man. Danny Jones and Joe Cosgrove used to hand out those insane 40-50 point spots in snooker to a sap and the game would last and last and last. The sucker never seemed to notice that the red balls never seemed to go away.
The "lawyer who came in at lunch" was a shylock named "Archie".
I hung out there from 1953 until it closed, around 1971, I think.
I started out in there at age 15 (Georgia allowed those under 21 to play if they had a signed, notarized, statement from the parents). I did "policy" ticket runs all down Decatur street and past the police station for the policy writing banker man who's "office" was the phone booth at the top of the stairs going to the main level from the sidewalk there on Edgewood Ave. Booking the "lead", "trail, and the "bug"
The bug was the 1st & 2nd numbers in stock trading along with the last number in bonds that came out in the final edition of the daily newspaper.
Glory days....learned soooooooo much in that place.
Waiting for the book to arrive.
Thanks again for your information about it.
Flash
GoldenFlash
Banned
I think the book is just wonderful, for anyone who grew up in Atlanta.
At first glance I paid little attention to the author's name until I looked inside and saw where he'd dedicated it to his dad, Ben Sinor...who I knew very well.
In fact, Ben Sinor and I got locked up once in a bogus raid on a poker game down in Forest Park...(one of the nit players' wife was mad at him and reported us).
This was back around 1974. In fact, playing in the game was the Clayton County Jailer and they had to unlock him and drive him down to the jail so he could feed the prisoners, because he had all the keys, and then lock him up again.
It was absurd. I think we paid a fine of $75. The cops grabbed $80 cash out of my shirt pocket and kept it as "evidence"...yea, right.
It was just a bunch of us friends playing in the back of a Forest Park pool room...$2.00 - $5.00 limit stuff, but you know how in a small town that can get blown up into a scenario of "the gangsters are coming...the gangsters are coming", etc. etc.
I remember that very well. That was the second time he go caught in a "raid." Glad you liked the book. The second one in the same series should be out in 2016. Same Johnny and company. This one takes place at the Southeastern Fair. I'd like to talk to you off line or by phone sometime.