It will be on its way tomorrow Gary, autographed to you! Enjoy, Jay :smile:
More Pool Wars
- Thread starter Nine ... corner
- Start date
It will be on its way tomorrow Gary, autographed to you! Enjoy, Jay :smile:
After reading over half of Jay's book, I got so pumped up I uncovered my table for the first time since my back went out. Only played 12 racks of 9 ball with soft break, but it got the pool blood flowing again. Great read by a guy that's the real deal. Johnnyt
Thanks Johnny! I'm so real I can remember playing dollar a game Eight Ball all night to win twenty five or thirty bucks. And happy to do it too! Or how about fifty cents on the five and a dollar on the nine ring game? You could also make a nice twenty or thirty dollar score here.
I would drive all over looking for games just like this and when I found one I would play every day until they barred me. Usually I might last a few days or a week. A hundred bucks was money back then!
P.S. One last thing Johnny. Guys like us need all the exercise we can get and pool is pretty good for us, with all the bending and stretching. I joined a gym (24 Hour Fitness) a little while back and go three times a week for about thirty minutes each time. On the off days, I work out with weights and my trampoline at home. I'm losing some weight and regaining my health. I'm not quite ready to go yet!
Last edited:
Those BB 9 ball ring games could pay the rent for awhile if you got in one that new players came into the game as old ones stepped out...and of course let everyone know when you have a little losing streak and keep your mouth shut when your on a win streak. A good solid "B" player could take off most bars back in the 1950's to late 1970's. Long Island, NY is 120 miles long and about 20 miles at its widest. There were over 100 small towns on it and each town had 1-2 little action bars with 1-2 bar boxes in them. I really never had to work back then, but I did. I always liked money. Johnnyt
While you were working Long Island I was doing the same thing in L.A. There must have been a thousand bars all over the greater Los Angeles area. You could never run out of places to play here in the 60's and 70's. I would hang out in the poolroom all day and hit the bars at night. I wouldn't really call them "action" bars because a game bigger than $5 was a rarity. But the standard bet was either a drink or a dollar. I opted for the dollar every time!
While you were working Long Island I was doing the same thing in L.A. There must have been a thousand bars all over the greater Los Angeles area. You could never run out of places to play here in the 60's and 70's. I would hang out in the poolroom all day and hit the bars at night. I wouldn't really call them "action" bars because a game bigger than $5 was a rarity. But the standard bet was either a drink or a dollar. I opted for the dollar every time!
In North Central Ohio, growing up in the late 1950s/1960s we played 8 ball that cost 10 cents a game in the poolroom. The houseman that owned the pool room racked the balls and collected the dime after each game. In 9-ball ring games the winner paid nothing for the game and each loser paid a nickel. No tossing the nickels toward the racker, coins were always placed on the rail. Playing five/nine or 3/6/9 meant there was some real money involved (maybe 50c/$1.00 or .50/.50/1.00).
To play straight pool, we went "on the clock". Fifty cents an hour, and real money had to be bet in order to cover time costs.
Soda (or pop as we called it) came out of a slider for a dime. Nehi cream soda was clear, and when the houseman was busy racking, we would pop off the cap, suck out the pop with a straw, fill the bottle with water and put the cap back on. Railroaders came in all the time. The YMCA was next door, where they slept when in town overnight. A couple of times a week you would hear a railroader yell out "damn, this pop tastes like water!".
How many times did you turn up the jukebox volume with a fast song playing really loud just to pi$$ off the older guy you were gambling with? BTW, candy was a nickel, phone calls were a dime......tough to make a lot of money in those days, but it was fun trying.....:thumbup:
Will Prout
Last edited:
Ha Ha Will, I remember all that; dime a game, nickel candy bar (hmm...butterfinger or almond joy?), dime for a pop (my favorite was Hires Root Beer) and a rack boy/man who ran around the room racking on every table. You had to wait for him to start your next game.
Hey, a MacDonald's hamburger was fifteen cents too! My first car (a '50 Chevy cost me $200 in 1960) and it took me two years to pay my dad back at five and ten bucks at a time.
Dayton was not far from you. :wink:
You old farts sound just like the railbirds at the clubs...Elks, Lions, etc. I played at one for years every Wed eve and Sunday mornings...8, 9 and straight pool. The "old timers" talked about the prices when they were young and their illnesses, surgeries and meds while saying "you should have put low right on that" or it "rattled because you hit it too hard"
Those old timers are all gone now ....but at the senior center where I play now every morning the same conversations go on but I'm in them!
Loved the book Jay. MItch
Those old timers are all gone now ....but at the senior center where I play now every morning the same conversations go on but I'm in them!
Loved the book Jay. MItch
Jay, I might be a couple generations behind modern slang. What does "They're 100% BS" mean as used above? Years ago, whenever an author used BS to describe his former writing, he was conveying that at one time, his stories were 100% bullsh..t -- actually just "made up" or highly "embellished," invented or fully "colorized" stories, loosely based on a sliver of an incident.. . .You'll be happy with my books. They're 100% BS!
I'm guessing that "BS" can now be used not at all in a literal sense, but actually to convey a very positive thing, a sense that stories are factual, highly entertaining, lounge-around-the-campfire (or pool room) ones. Kind of like street slang where "bad" is a hip -- I guess upbeat -- expression that actually refers to something being very, very, good?
I had noticed the "Did just say-that?" eek emoticon, and innocently wonder about the BS reference. I have the book and it's a terrifically entertaining read as was your first Pool Wars book.
Arnaldo
Last edited:
Arnaldo, it was kind of a private joke to my friend Dick in response to what he said to me. Actually Pool Wars and More Pool Wars are just the opposite, factual accounts of events that really occurred. The truth is always far more exciting than fiction anyway.
I have been lamenting the fact that I lost my copy.
Just found it somewhere I'd never put it and said ,'sweet! I been lookin for this'. The wife replied, "if you don't put things away you never know where they'll go".
If she had another eye, I'd blacken it too.
I kid, she has no black eyes...yet!!
Just found it somewhere I'd never put it and said ,'sweet! I been lookin for this'. The wife replied, "if you don't put things away you never know where they'll go".
If she had another eye, I'd blacken it too.
I kid, she has no black eyes...yet!
!
I have been lamenting the fact that I lost my copy.
Just found it somewhere I'd never put it and said ,'sweet! I been lookin for this'. The wife replied, "if you don't put things away you never know where they'll go".
If she had another eye, I'd blacken it too.
I kid, she has no black eyes...yet!
I heard she looked like a raccoon recently. I kid, I kid ... couldn't resist.
Just a heads up that More Pool Wars is in stock and you can get a copy through my website, jayhelfert.com.
Mid Summer sale this month only. Copy of More Pool Wars for $20, includes shipping ($5 savings). $40 for a copy of Pool Wars and More Pool Wars, shipping included ($10 savings). You cannot get this deal through my website, only directly through Paypal or by check. My Paypal address is jayhelfert@yahoo.com and my mailing address is on my website, jayhelfert.com. Enjoy! :thumbup:
Last edited:
Gas on Long Island in 1957 was less than 20 cents a gallon. Two bucks filled the tank of my 1950 ford fire engine red convertible. If I had nothing to wear clean on Friday night, it would only cost $3.50 for a pair of pegged pants, $3.00 for a nice shirt, $4.50 for a pair of loafers, plus sox and underwear for about another $2.50...all from an upscale men's shop...not Walmart. Now I was ready to go out to the clubs and Twist the night away. :grin::grin::grin:. J
PS: An ounce of Colombian or Mexican cost $15.
Last edited:
In California we could get an ounce of good stuff for ten bucks. If I made $50 it was a great day ($20 was my goal each day)! My rent on an efficiency apartment was $25 a week, and this was in the 60's.
