Just curious.... will this be a down and dirty biography/autobiography or will is be a little more on the sanitized side?
I know Keith has lived the, shall we say, more "colorized" version of the pool life and that is what would peak my interest. It would be very interesting to hear of all his exploits, both good and bad. That type of book sells good too, and you wouldn't have to take any artistic license with it either:grin:
I would love to read it, no matter how it is wrote, but the straight from the hip would be a much more enjoyable read for me... Read: -----> for me
Always enjoy reading your posts and seeing your pics, Jen.
CaliRed
That is the EXACT difficulty that I am encountering helping Keith tell it like it is. What he thinks is sanitized ain't santized. The way he tells it like it is can be a little bit brutally frank and may be offensive to some folk. In particular, me personally, I do not enjoy elaborating on the Las Vegas years of Keith's life.
I will never forget the first time I ran into some old pool friends of mine, right after Keith and I first met. I had been away from pool for 20 or so years, building up my career. I hadn't been to Jack and Jill's (used to be Bill and Billie's) in Glen Burnie, Maryland, for eons, but I decided to make the pool rounds with Keith, not realizing how much things had really changed in the pool world. :sorry:
Glen Burnie's Bill and Billie's was located in the back of a warehouse district. You'd never know it was there. It was a family-run establishment in my younger life, with homemade tuna fish sandwiches, delicious soups made from scratch, fresh coffee 24/7, and every pie flavor you could think of. Unlike the pool ghost town that it is today, Baltimore used to rock and roll when it came to pool. Oh, man, it was on every road player's TripTik.
By day, all the bookies, horse track guys, and old-timers would pile in there, reading their newspapers, chatting with each other, sharing a few laughs. There would always be some one-hole matches going on. And by midnight, when the bars would shut down, the action would be just beginning in Bill and Billie's. Back then, action was plentiful in Maryland. One pool room owner (Greenies, I think) put up his pool room as stakes in a poker game and lost. And make no mistake about it, Baltimore had the best coin throwers in the world, bar none. Many a gambler left Baltimore busted after tossing coins with our homeboys.
I remember a steer man who brought this Filippino player in one night, looking for action. Well, he broke the place, leaving us all with our mouths wide open. We had never seen anybody shoot like that. His name was Efren. :grin:
Anyway, I digressed, remembering my good old days. This Bill and Billie's (not the one in Arnold, MD) was a real player's pool room. There was no alcohol served, and it was pool that was the main attraction, the way it should be.
Fast forward and my new boyfriend (Keith) and I walk into Jack and Jill's (what used to be Bill and Billie's) in Glen Burnie, MD. I was sorely disappointed, as the place did not have quite the same atmosphere. Upon first glance, I didn't see anybody I recognized and was beginning to feel uncomfortable, something I never thought would happen to me at Bill and Billie's.
Then a young blond player walked up to me and said, "Jennie, wow, good to see you. Where you been?" Suddenly, I felt comfy, knowing one of the regulars in the joint. Of course, he knew Keith and introduced himself by saying, "Hi. My name is Danny Green. I was in that book 'Playing on the Rail.'" It was a rather odd but interesting introduction, one I found kind of funny. :grin:
We chatted a bit, sweated a few games, and then Danny pulled me in the back room alone, saying he wanted to show me something. I was curious as to what he wanted to show me, but then he said, "Jennie, do you know who you're with? You better be careful with that guy." I said, "Danny, what do you mean?" hoping I wasn't with a serial killer. He said, "I seen him in Las Vegas with two girls on each arm. He's a real player, and he's gonna break your heart." I guess it was Danny's way of looking out for me.
Ten years later, that Las Vegas lady's man and I are still together. :wink:
