Hal Houle UPDATE

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
I just got off the telephone with Hal and his lovely wife, Sunny.

Hal is still the same old Hal, full of life, humor and wit. Hal's legs continue to worsen with his diabetes and he is using a walker to push himself around.

Even at Hal's advanced age, he still manages to carry on an interesting phone conversation. He refers to the pool room quite often. The "pool room" he refers to is HIS PERSONAL POOL ROOM, where he still engages bright, young, eager to learn students like Dave-SpiderComm.

Hal is quite proud of Dave, Landon and Stan Shuffett and what they have managed to do with CTE. We discussed that trio for several minutes. I hope Landon realizes how rare of a treasure that Hal is and how happy Hal is for Landon's continuing success.

Hal's humor knows no bounds and he was telling me the story of one of his many visits to the doctors and was telling me that the doctors were dumb-founded because they couldn't find his heart. They wanted to put him in one of those "tubes" to see if they could find his heart. After they had put him in one of those "tubes", the doctors remarked that he must be OK because he is still alive but were still perplexed about the missing heart, at which time Hal quipped that he had no heart.

I just hope that I will have the same perspective and pleasantness that Hal still has when I grow up.

We could all learn something even more important than CTE from Hal Houle.

Hal wishes all of AZ Billiards his best and this time he didn't single out any exceptions. :D

JoeyA
 
Thanks for the update, Joey. I had the pleasure of spending a day with Hal many years ago. He is as smart on the table as he is with his quick wit. Even if the young Mr. Landon doesn't quite grasp it now, he will understand how fortunate he is to have known Hal when he gets a little older. ;)
 
It's good he's still got that sense of humor. I'd like to think he'd get a little chuckle out of all the CTE debate :)
 
Hal is, in my opinion, the "hidden treasure" referred to in another thread . Glad to hear he is still alive and kicking!
Talking to Hal is a priceless experience!!
 
I haven't talked to Hal in years but remmber our converstaions while I was at the table, with great fondness. I am glad to hear he's still alive and kicking.
 
Thanks for the update Joey. May Hal live many more years and share many more stories to those blessed enough to have Hal as a friend.
 
Glad to hear Hal is still getting around. Thanks for sharing your conversation Joey! It's a shame Hal never wrote a book. His stories are priceless. Many times he tells me the same stories when I call him but they are just as exciting for me to listen to over and over again. These first hand stories are priceless and I hope he has them wrote down somewhere.
 
eezbank said:
Glad to hear Hal is still getting around. Thanks for sharing your conversation Joey! It's a shame Hal never wrote a book. His stories are priceless. Many times he tells me the same stories when I call him but they are just as exciting for me to listen to over and over again. These first hand stories are priceless and I hope he has them wrote down somewhere.
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I agree. What a treasure trove of information and stories! If he doesn't have them written down somewhere, what an honor it'd be for someone to spend time with Hal and do so -- to be the yeoman, while at the same time, being entertained continuously. However, methinks Hal might be so prodigious that it'd be a full-time job over an extended period of time to get even a portion of it written down.

-Sean
 
I feel the same way cookie man. Good Health to you Hal...live life to the fullest, and may you last many more years. :thumbup: It's been almost 2 yrs. since I visited with Hal...I think I'm due for another visit to PA!

Scott Lee
www.poolknowledge.com

cookie man said:
Thanks for the update Joey. May Hal live many more years and share many more stories to those blessed enough to have Hal as a friend.
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It is great to hear Hal is still hanging in there. I too, talked to ham many years ago. I hope all the pool world gives him his atta boys, so he can enjoy them, he has done so much for the game.


Joey, all the pool players have their nick names.

How about: NO HEART HAL
 
Thanks for being out there!! Mr. Hal Houle/Family

And I have been feeling( the pull of the moon)-to go see Hal. For those who don't know Hal is a great teacher over the phone. wishing you the best Sir. mark
 
I talked with him yesterday too. Same good stories and he still sounds the same. The joker. His legs are pretty bad and he fell and hurt his hip. Don't know which one, but the main thing is he didn't break it.
It's amazing how time fly's, I can't believe it been over 2 years since I went and saw them.
He's now 85 and doing ok.
I can tell you that when I got the return call from him, as I had called him last week, that I had been a little worried as to how he was doing. But after our talk I can tell you that when I hung up, I had a smile on my face.
 
Thanks for the update Joey. Hal truly is a "treasure" in the pool world.

Even though I've sometimes been a little skeptical about some of the claims made about some of his systems, I still loved all of the stories Hal shared with me during our phone conversations in the past.

Regards,
Dave

JoeyA said:
I just got off the telephone with Hal and his lovely wife, Sunny.

Hal is still the same old Hal, full of life, humor and wit. Hal's legs continue to worsen with his diabetes and he is using a walker to push himself around.

Even at Hal's advanced age, he still manages to carry on an interesting phone conversation. He refers to the pool room quite often. The "pool room" he refers to is HIS PERSONAL POOL ROOM, where he still engages bright, young, eager to learn students like Dave-SpiderComm.

Hal is quite proud of Dave, Landon and Stan Shuffett and what they have managed to do with CTE. We discussed that trio for several minutes. I hope Landon realizes how rare of a treasure that Hal is and how happy Hal is for Landon's continuing success.

Hal's humor knows no bounds and he was telling me the story of one of his many visits to the doctors and was telling me that the doctors were dumb-founded because they couldn't find his heart. They wanted to put him in one of those "tubes" to see if they could find his heart. After they had put him in one of those "tubes", the doctors remarked that he must be OK because he is still alive but were still perplexed about the missing heart, at which time Hal quipped that he had no heart.

I just hope that I will have the same perspective and pleasantness that Hal still has when I grow up.

We could all learn something even more important than CTE from Hal Houle.

Hal wishes all of AZ Billiards his best and this time he didn't single out any exceptions. :D

JoeyA
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I'm glad HAl is doing OK. I haven't called him in a long time. Koop and I talked about visiting Hal, maybe we need to get this off the back burner. Koop, you have time this spring?


Eric
 
eezbank said:
Glad to hear Hal is still getting around. Thanks for sharing your conversation Joey! It's a shame Hal never wrote a book. His stories are priceless. Many times he tells me the same stories when I call him but they are just as exciting for me to listen to over and over again. These first hand stories are priceless and I hope he has them wrote down somewhere.
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I especially like the fact that when he retells the same old story, it doesn't change. That says a lot about the accuracy of the story.

His stories of his early manhood are movie-quality stories.

JoeyA
 
sfleinen said:
I agree. What a treasure trove of information and stories! If he doesn't have them written down somewhere, what an honor it'd be for someone to spend time with Hal and do so -- to be the yeoman, while at the same time, being entertained continuously. However, methinks Hal might be so prodigious that it'd be a full-time job over an extended period of time to get even a portion of it written down.

-Sean
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One of those small, but efficient Sony Digital recorders would do the trick. Then maybe a JAM to do the typing and you've got yourself a best selling book.

JoeyA
 
JoeyA...Not to discount what you're saying, but all it really means is that the story has been told the same way enough times that the person believes it to be true. I've seen people tell the same lies enough times, that they actually believed they were telling the truth. That's probably not the case with Hal. :D

JoeyA said:
I especially like the fact that when he retells the same old story, it doesn't change. That says a lot about the accuracy of the story.

JoeyA
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Scott Lee said:
JoeyA...Not to discount what you're saying, but all it really means is that the story has been told the same way enough times that the person believes it to be true. I've seen people tell the same lies enough times, that they actually believed they were telling the truth. That's probably not the case with Hal. :D
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I'm guessing your glass is usually half-empty instead of half-full. :shakehead:

JoeyA
 
Eric. said:
I'm glad HAl is doing OK. I haven't called him in a long time. Koop and I talked about visiting Hal, maybe we need to get this off the back burner. Koop, you have time this spring?


Eric
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I will make time. I'm in man. Let's do it.
 
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