First time ??????

I had to dig this one out of the archives.

The year was 1965. It was a hot July day, off from school and visiting in a friend's neighborhood a mile or so from my own. Mike Dupuy had been given one of those "cardboard" pool tables which was probably a 7 footer or maybe even six. He placed the table outside on his parent's side driveway which was two narrow strips of concrete running from the street to the back yard.

I was walking and I remember it was the clicking of the balls that first caught my attention. I had not quite reached the driveway to see what was making this noise but remember that sound as if it were yesterday. My ears told me that was something I should investigate and when I saw my first pool table with all of the colored balls, the click noises the balls made as they collided with one another, I knew I had to learn more about this intriguing game.

After watching for a very short period of time I realized that if you hit the balls hard enough they would find a pocket to fall into. The table was so unlevel that any ball would find its way to the hole if hit hard enough. None of us could run two balls but that day we started playing Kelly Pool for nickels and I think I made twenty cents or something close to that.

That old table took a beating with me slamming the cue ball into the named object ball at the fastest speed my little skinny arms could move the cue. Gambling was always a way to make a fast buck for a poor guy growing up in New Orleans and I have few regrets of taking my friend's money. None of us had any money and we were all a desperate lot, seeking easy revenue not earned by slaving away on the newspaper route, peddling half our weight in newspapers all around the neighborhood, getting rewarded by customers who didn't think twice about telling you to come back later because they didn't have any money right now and earning few dollars of profit to boot.

Nevertheless, I could see that playing pool for money had to be a part time business as you could never depend on friend or stranger to have money that they were mad at. I gambled off and on (mostly on) and still do, although it is still only a hobby. About 12 years ago I decided to give up the hustling (though, not the gambling) and concentrate on trying to improve my level of play and it has been a blast.....far more rewarding than those nickels and dimes I managed to squeeze from the hands of friends and strangers. :D
 
Went with Dad to the VFW and I was facinated with the pool table; a coin op bar box. I was about 9 or 10 and so skinny that, within 30 minutes, I learned to put my arm up the ball return and trip the mechanism. Loved the rumble of the ball return. Played free all night. Soon after that Dad got us a used bumper pool table. We must have played a thousand games on that old junky thing. Hooked ever since.

Thanks for the thread OP. Good memories.
 
Come on... more tales of wonder folks.

DIsh! wanna know what got you in the game. Some money, some power over the dancing armies, some the physics, competition, social interaction, oohs and ahhhs of the crowd.... what what what drives this (one of many) passion in life?
 
First times for me:

I can remember the first time I walked into a pool hall and certainly remember seeing very proficient players play in that same pool hall (two of em happened to be Leil (JR) Gay and Troy Frank) about 18 years ago. This was at the McDermott 9 Ball tour in 1993 with great players like JR, Troy, Tulio Antonelli and Frank Zuma among others. Troy won that tournament if I remember correctly.

While I can't remember the layout, or the date I remember the feeling I had the first time I ran the first rack of 14.1. I remember being incredibly nervous getting on the key ball and being absolutely relieved when I made it and left myself perfect on the break ball. I ended up rattling 25 which disappointed me as I was again running great pattern play, but I was on cloud nine for getting over that first hump.
 
I was just a kid and used to bang balls with a buddy in Charleston who was always drunk.
Started to realize i banged em pretty good.
 
my father purchased an Olhausen table when I was 10 years old. I remember nobody wound play me becuase I was a kid. A few years later nobody would play me because they couldn't win. I was a lonely pool player growing up.
 
My dad's friend had a table in the basement. I can remember going over there as a really small child, under 5 easily, and watching them play pool. My dad would put me up on a chair and let me roll balls around. When I was a pre-teen there was a town hall just up the street from where we lived and they had 2 pool tables. My friends and I lived there. I was really the only one that spent time alone there shooting balls. By the time I finally went to a pool hall I had the basics down. I thought I was really good until I saw players like Gary Spaeth and when I saw the good players I knew right then that I wanted to be able to play like that.
MULLY
 
My dad brought me down to the local diner/bar one day when I was about 5-6 for what I thought was a soda or maybe one of their famous "Mickey" burgers. We went in back and there I saw my grandpa and all my uncles gathered around the pool table. Grandpa bought me that soda, which I sipped slowly and silently as I sat there watching them play. As captivated as I was by the game, what really caught my heart was all the stories that floated around that back room that day. Some of which, by the look on dad's face, and his subsequent smile, I was not supposed to hear. I watched and listened for what seemed like an eternity. An eternity that I would gladly endure again and again if ever I was given the chance. It showed me early on that as captivating as this game is, the real joy is in the company with which it is played.

Thanks dad,
Your son Randy
 
I've posted this before...for me, the first time I really saw pool played (well), was just after I arrived at college. Jack White came to my school, for the first time (in a 25 year stretch), and I would have sworn that the CB was attached to a string, the way he made everything in sight, and drew perfect shape for every shot. In that moment I knew this would become a lifetime addiction...I just had NO idea that it would take me where I've been. I've loved the game from day one...and now, almost 40 years later, I love it even more! It's a passion, a hobby, a mistress, a job, and forever more challenging each passing day! :grin:

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com
 
I grew up in a small town that had a table in the theatre. We lived about 20 miles from town and I probablyonly played 8-10 games my entire time in high school. We had to haul hay in the summer and after that going to town was not in the picture. After school I joined the Air Force and while at Lackland one of my instructors ask if anyone could play pool. No one said anything so I said I could and our first free saturday he ask if I wanted to play. Off we went to the drill instructors lounge. The first real game I ever played was straight pool for$50.00 for50points. We had moneyand could not spend it so it meant nothing to me. Well I won that game and every saturday after that for several weeks we played and I won more thatn I lost. I left lackland and went to Whiteman AFB in Mo.
I played everyday and there was a player named Ken Bernard that really got me to like pool and helped my game a lot. Then Jack White showed up and after seeing his demo I thought this is the best game ever. He sent me my first nice cue an L model Palmer in 1975 It was beautiful and hit the balls great. I will never forget seeing Jack for several years and agin at Lee College in Baytown Tx years later. He was a great showman and player. Don't know what happen to Ken Bernard but he made mw want to play more and better that than anyone else. What A time in life the beginning of a great relationship with a great game.
Percy/Knifemaker
 
Jude Rosenstock said:
My mother signed me up for after-school pottery classes when I was 7 or 8 years old. When I got to the after-school program, I immediately noticed a 9-foot table and an 8-footer. Within seconds, I gravitated to the 9-foot table and asked to play. A bigger kid asked me, "Do you know how?" Of course, I said yes and picked out a cue. Just to make sure, he tells me to make a bridge-hand like I was holding a pencil and to hit the white-ball first. I'm glad he said this because I didn't really have a clue up until then. I picked out a shot at the side-pocket and made it. It was a hanger but it felt great and I knew right then, there was no way in the world I was going to make it to that pottery class every week.
Click to expand...

You know, it's stories like yours, Frank, myself and others that make me wonder if our passion for pool started and grew BECAUSE we immediately knew we had an aptitude for billiards?
 
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