what made a pool hall "home" is gone
The housemen and a few ladies are what made pool halls when I started playing, them and the regulars that came to the pool hall every day at the same time like working a job even if they just sat in a chair or played dominoes. Mostly the owners served as housemen but there were a few housemen that just made money any way they could too with no direct employment at the pool hall.
One of my favorites was Jessie. Not sure how he spelled his name or what his last name was but he was a very solid shortstop and he always had a tale to tell once he decided you were good folks, funny or with a lesson in it sometimes both. I always remember his tale of his first date, his first piece of tail, and his first case of the clap all at once! He had thought she was a sweet innocent little thing that would never even date him. I had tears rolling down my face I was laughing so hard at the story as he told it.
Jessie had spent his days in the oilfield before retiring and had arms like tree trunks. Not that he needed it but he had carved a handle into a small log sized piece of pulpwood and had it behind the bar. He said he had came out from behind the bar with it once or twice but I never saw it happen. His pool hall was in a rough area on the blue collar side of town but inside was as safe as a church when he ran it other than the occasional accidental shot.
Jessie arm wrestled and in the years I played in his hall daily I never saw him beaten. He allowed as to how he was a little sore the day after putting down the LSU arm wrestling team, most repeatedly, but that was as close as he came to being beaten that I know of.
Jessie was one of the wisest men in the ways of people I have ever met, there wasn't much he didn't see from behind the counter. He rarely interfered but when the deal was a little too raw with an innocent involved he might shut it down.
When I think about it all of the great house men and women were very wise in the ways of the pool room and the street. Rather they acted or not they never seemed to miss anything or fail to understand exactly what was going on.
Another houseman was actually the bartender in a low dive. It had pool tables on the side and in an era when segregation was the rule at night the owner had hired a black bartender who worked in white long sleeved shirts and a tux vest, apparently the owner thought it gave the place a touch of class. I think it did myself. The bartender and I spoke often and I treated him with respect. In return he would give me the occasional steer, mostly who he thought might lighten my wallet. He warned me that Mike Massey had won some good sized events when Mike was in there practicing for a big time bar table event so naturally I made a beeline for him!
When I walk into a sterile place today without the long term daily regulars in it and without a house man or lady I feel like I'm in an alien place. Walking into a pool hall that is a pool hall I know it when I walk through the door. I have three that I know of within seventy miles of me and that is fortunate today.
Occasionally I see an old pool hall in unknown territory and step in the door. Sometimes it is a pool hall and I am home when I cross the threshold. Sometimes it is a very nice place but not a "real" pool hall and I turn and leave without considering hitting a ball. Pool halls need tables but for me it is the people that make a pool hall very much including the house person or people. One thing about the real housemen, they have you rated within a ball nine times out of ten before you are twenty feet inside the door. Nothing wrong with being a little general about your abilities but spare them the BS, they ain't gonna buy it!
Hu
) you'll be the first person I call!
