Purdman said:
Purd, Funny you should bring that up. I was playing a small tournament out of town last week and got in a conversation with an older gentleman. Not sure, but I'd bet he's pushing 90. Anyways, he wanted to play some one pocket "just for fun", so I obliged. You could tell by the way he studied the table that in his day, he was probably a helluva 1hole player. Anyways, we played a dozen or so games and he won more than half of them. I can be a pretty hardcore SOB, but this gentleman had a hard time getting anyone to play him and to be honest, I didn't have the heart to steamroll him.
After we finished playing, he bought me a soda and we talked some more. He knew my name was Bob, but didn't know my last name or where I was from. Told him I grew up in Ft Smith, AR, last name was Nunley... He looked at me kinda funny and said, "Ever know a snooker player from there they called Big Bob?" I said, "Yes sir, that was my Dad." Well, I over the next hour, I probably heard 5 hours worth of stories about pool and gambling and "back in the day". He said my Dad kind of disappeared from the gambling scene in the mid 1950's... I guess he gave it up when I was born, I don't know. I knew he played snooker, and even in my hay day back in the 80's he could still take me down on a snook like I was a babe in diapers. I didn't know he was as good as this old fellow said, but it was nice to hear...
Pretty neat stuff, and well worth dumping a few games of one pocket.
Later,
Bob