I met Joe when he was 12 years old.
He would come in the pool room that his Uncle once owned and watch us play.
Fast forward a few years after he served in the Army in Viet Nam he was schooled in pool by a real good old time player Sam "one poke" Fauver.
I got out of the Marines after Nam and came home to find Joe a pretty good player.
After a few years he became a real good player.
I never could match his skill level.
We did play countless sessions with me getting the 8 in 9 ball and 100 to 80 in straight pool.
The nice thing about joe was he would play for small stakes just to play and stay sharp.
I learned a lot playing him so many times. I would ask questions right in the middle of a game and he always answered them.
A lot of people thought he was kind of stand offish,truth was he was very shy.
There were times when Joe was in dead stroke and just ran balls and racks like they were nothing.
One time he played some road player and was in dead punch,the guy quit and said to the railbirds "This guy ain't human,I quit"
Rip my old friend.
