poke&hope said:Sweet Marissa thanks for this post it makes me realize how lucky I am. Da Bank is right its a people problem but people and pool rooms are not the same everywhere. I have to admit though, like cancer, its spreading fast. The room I attend two pretty girls in their late 20s greet you when you enter the door. If its been a week since you've been there they ask where in the world or h-ll have you been. At 11am if you buy something to eat you can play free from 11 to 2 a hamburger will do. From 2 to 6 they got what they call the special it costs 6 dollars. So you can play from 11am to 6pm for 6 and a hambuger Mon-Fri. Sat the special is from 9am to 2pm. Sunday and all other hours full price. All the old timers(55-80) and young pool players that love the game are there. You will see the old timers playing one pocket because they can think longer than they can walk. One or two young men in ther early 20s will be playing with them. Most are not great players anymore but love the game and love seeing each other. They are explaining to the young ones the strategy of the game and make excuses why they missed the last shot. You will hear someone ask hows your brother I heard he was sick I hope he's doing alright. On the other side of the room with 9 gold crowns, is a player in his late 50's practicing. A lad of about 25 walks over and asks if he can play with him. He says yes but during the play he sees a terrible stance and no bridge so asks if he would like some pointers to speed his game up a bit. The lads eyes get big and of course that was his motive all along. After a couple of hours the old man says thats all I can show you today I will teach you more next time I see you.You hear laughter coming from the one pocket table somebody has told a joke or a funny story about somebody they all know. The reason you can hear and see all this is because its a no smoking room and theres not much rap or music from hell playing because they tried it and the old timers quit coming and told the owner they did not want to hear the f word every other breath on loud speakers and would like to be able to talk to each other. At 6 the girls holler the special is over but the old men say "let us finish the game darling". The girls just smile because they know it will be 30 more minutes to finish their one pocket game but she doesn't put them on time. Now the old timers and young pool addicts start to leave. As their leaving you can hear the music change from music to shoot pool by to music to shoot during a drive by and the crowd and mood slowly changes. The old men stand outside sometimes and tell stories of the 70s-80s when this was a hotspot for poolplayers. You hear stories about Mark Tad, Mizerak, Tony Watson when he was a kid, Kim Davenport, Johnny Archer, Earl Strickland, somebody called the hippie and many more from people that were there who make you wish you were. I am sorry this is so long and I apoligize but this is part of my experience where I play and I love it.Thanks to Marissa I no longer will take it for granted. Oh! by the way Marissa and other posters, if you take a look at Washinton DC I think you will find everything you mentioned on a much larger scale. Its not the pool world its the new world. Good Luck, I think were going to need it.:smile:
Poke and Hope: You should often. You write well.
However.... Save that s**t about "You will see the old timers playing one pocket because they can think longer than they can walk". :wink:
JoeyA
