Pool as a safety blanket / fountain of youth

Michael Andros

Michael Andros

tiny balls, GIANT pockets
Silver Member
Yeah, this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous, but somehow, I have a feeling there will be some here who have some idea what I'm talking about.

As I've aged ( and for you youngsters out there, yup... you too. you're on the list: tick, tick, tick ), I've moved into that area and time of life where physically, little things are going wrong and, seemingly more and more frequently, the little things are becoming not-so-little-things. And, yeah, I deal with them, just like everyone else. And as the years flow by, I find myself thinking more and more about the inescapable truth that, eventually, and maybe even not-too-terribly-far-down-the-road, I'm not going to be around. Ok, everyone thinks about that at some time in their lives, I get that. But as you slowly move into the "twilight years", this stuff seems to become a bit more... real. A bit closer to home, as it were.

And, so, pool... and this is the ridiculous part. No matter what issues I'm having, no matter what little things become bigger things, I've discovered this sneaky, unexplainable feeling that, as long as I keep playing pool, I'll be ok. I have nothing, of course, to justify that. No doctor or philosopher or priest has said to me "Go... and play pool. And nothing will harm you." But, that said, that's exactly how I feel. It's almost like magic. I wake up, I think about what needs done today, then I decide what time I'll grab my cue, jump in the car, and head to the pool room. And I know... I KNOW, that as long as I can make it there, put my cue together, powder up and start making balls, nothing can touch me. Nothing can bother me. Nothing can affect me. It's just the Eternal Me and all those beautiful colored balls clicking and clacking as they roll around the table. It's an elixir and a medicine and it's potent. And nothing can hurt me or bring me down. It's my lifeline, in almost a literal sense of the word. My fountain of youth. Not to keep me young, per se. But more to keep anything bad from happening. And at my core? Without even trying to convince myself? I know it's true.

So, yeah... pool. My best friend. My doctor. My philosopher. My priest. And someday, hopefully way down the road, when I do check out, it will be moments after making that last nine in the side. I couldn't think of a better way for this movie to end. So, we'll see. With any luck, it'll be something like that.
 
I think it is absolutely a shelter , but not in the sense it can provide actual protection. Well, perhaps from the weather!;)

I'd call it a distraction. You know, occupy your mind and your troubles go away for a while.
 
Michael Andros said:
Yeah, this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous, but somehow, I have a feeling there will be some here who have some idea what I'm talking about.

As I've aged ( and for you youngsters out there, yup... you too. you're on the list: tick, tick, tick ), I've moved into that area and time of life where physically, little things are going wrong and, seemingly more and more frequently, the little things are becoming not-so-little-things. And, yeah, I deal with them, just like everyone else. And as the years flow by, I find myself thinking more and more about the inescapable truth that, eventually, and maybe even not-too-terribly-far-down-the-road, I'm not going to be around. Ok, everyone thinks about that at some time in their lives, I get that. But as you slowly move into the "twilight years", this stuff seems to become a bit more... real. A bit closer to home, as it were.

And, so, pool... and this is the ridiculous part. No matter what issues I'm having, no matter what little things become bigger things, I've discovered this sneaky, unexplainable feeling that, as long as I keep playing pool, I'll be ok. I have nothing, of course, to justify that. No doctor or philosopher or priest has said to me "Go... and play pool. And nothing will harm you." But, that said, that's exactly how I feel. It's almost like magic. I wake up, I think about what needs done today, then I decide what time I'll grab my cue, jump in the car, and head to the pool room. And I know... I KNOW, that as long as I can make it there, put my cue together, powder up and start making balls, nothing can touch me. Nothing can bother me. Nothing can affect me. It's just the Eternal Me and all those beautiful colored balls clicking and clacking as they roll around the table. It's an elixir and a medicine and it's potent. And nothing can hurt me or bring me down. It's my lifeline, in almost a literal sense of the word. My fountain of youth. Not to keep me young, per se. But more to keep anything bad from happening. And at my core? Without even trying to convince myself? I know it's true.

So, yeah... pool. My best friend. My doctor. My philosopher. My priest. And someday, hopefully way down the road, when I do check out, it will be moments after making that last nine in the side. I couldn't think of a better way for this movie to end. So, we'll see. With any luck, it'll be something like that.
Click to expand...


I understand what you're saying, particularly about aging :-)

But to be honest, for me, I don't find the pool hall the same safe haven you do. I do believe that playing the game, and in particular 1pocket, is of great mental benefit. Some folks might like crossword puzzles or sudoku, but figuring a three-rail bank while attempting to hide whitey for some dough will not only keep the gears turning but maybe also keep the old ticker vigorously pumping too.

In a different sense though, I have found pool halls to be immune to time. When I was traveling back and forth across the country and would stop into a pool room I'd visited, maybe five, ten years before, I was always struck by how the rooms were frozen in time -- the same look, the same smell, even the same guys playing on the same tables. Their hair might have been a little whiter, they might have a few more wrinkles, but then so did I. It was as if nothing had, nor ever would change. Very Twilight Zone.

Lou Figueroa
 
lfigueroa said:
I understand what you're saying, particularly about aging :-)

But to be honest, for me, I don't find the pool hall the same safe haven you do. I do believe that playing the game, and in particular 1pocket, is of great mental benefit. Some folks might like crossword puzzles or sudoku, but figuring a three-rail bank while attempting to hide whitey for some dough will not only keep the gears turning but maybe also keep the old ticker vigorously pumping too.

In a different sense though, I have found pool halls to be immune to time. When I was traveling back and forth across the country and would stop into a pool room I'd visited, maybe five, ten years before, I was always struck by how the rooms were frozen in time -- the same look, the same smell, even the same guys playing on the same tables. Their hair might have been a little whiter, they might have a few more wrinkles, but then so did I. It was as if nothing had, nor ever would change. Very Twilight Zone.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...


Couldn't agree more, Lou. And this is going to sound REALLY stupid, but when one of those old rooms closes shop for good, it feels almost like a wrinkle in some space-time continuum. As if there is now a small place in the universe that just doesn't add up anymore.

Man... acid was so much better in the 60s... :yeah:
 
lfigueroa said:
I understand what you're saying, particularly about aging :-)

But to be honest, for me, I don't find the pool hall the same safe haven you do. I do believe that playing the game, and in particular 1pocket, is of great mental benefit. Some folks might like crossword puzzles or sudoku, but figuring a three-rail bank while attempting to hide whitey for some dough will not only keep the gears turning but maybe also keep the old ticker vigorously pumping too.

In a different sense though, I have found pool halls to be immune to time. When I was traveling back and forth across the country and would stop into a pool room I'd visited, maybe five, ten years before, I was always struck by how the rooms were frozen in time -- the same look, the same smell, even the same guys playing on the same tables. Their hair might have been a little whiter, they might have a few more wrinkles, but then so did I. It was as if nothing had, nor ever would change. Very Twilight Zone.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...

Spot On Lou... I've been playing for 60 years. I even play better than I did as a young man, but then again I'm much wiser. As I travel to different places I've been, I realize like you that time is standing still there & I'd wager that in ten years, barring any downturns, those places will be the same. I find that amazing...
 
I’m still working on my kicking.....
...’cause I wanna be ready for when life tries to three-foul me.
 
pt109 said:
I’m still working on my kicking.....
...’cause I wanna be ready for when life tries to three-foul me.
Click to expand...
Life. That's "the ghost" we've heard so much about, right?

I've been betting air barrels against it for years. Some day I'll have to post up...

pj
chgo
 
Feels like The Fountain of Youth for me. Every time I walk in the room, other than the counterman, I'm the youngest one there, at 60.

Just like eating at Cracker Barrel.
 
Patrick Johnson said:
Life. That's "the ghost" we've heard so much about, right?

I've been betting air barrels against it for years. Some day I'll have to post up...

pj
chgo
Click to expand...

Nailed it!

Playing the ghost... as long as I'm still swinging the cue, the Grim Reaper's
got 9-7 and the breaks.. well, maybe no breaks :cool:

I think it's also the LAST, LAST thing we can still do, that we did when we were younger... can't throw a football as far, get winded playing one on one B-Ball after 5 minutes.. but pool?.. sh*t, sonny.. wanna play some One Pocket?
 
I can certainly relate to your point in this post. The anticipation I have just for playing a practice session late at night, by myself, would be hard for anyone other than another passionate pool player to ever comprehend, not unlike the enjoyment and pleasure I got out of the game when first learning it, as a young teenager.

As someone who loves to practice 14.1, the dream of surpassing my high run (set a few decades ago) is always in my mind, as a goal, at the start of every one of these solo practice sessions. Yes, I've always fallen fall short up to this point, but I never know when that magical night might come, so I refuse to give up that dream anytime soon!
 
Runner said:
Nailed it!

Playing the ghost... as long as I'm still swinging the cue, the Grim Reaper's
got 9-7 and the breaks.. well, maybe no breaks :cool:

I think it's also the LAST, LAST thing we can still do, that we did when we were younger... can't throw a football as far, get winded playing one on one B-Ball after 5 minutes.. but pool?.. sh*t, sonny.. wanna play some One Pocket?
Click to expand...

What HE said... :yeah:
 
ChrisinNC said:
I can certainly relate to your point in this post. The anticipation I have just for playing a practice session late at night, by myself, would be hard for anyone other than another passionate pool player to ever comprehend, not unlike the enjoyment and pleasure I got out of the game when first learning it, as a young teenager.

As someone who loves to practice 14.1, the dream of surpassing my high run (set a few decades ago) is always in my mind, as a goal, at the start of every one of these solo practice sessions. Yes, I've always fallen fall short up to this point, but I never know when that magical night might come, so I refuse to give up that dream anytime soon!
Click to expand...


Forget "anytime soon..." NEVER give up on that dream, Chris! :yeah:
 
On a similar note, its been said that the time one spends fishing is not deducted from
your lifetime.

Maybe we can get the same deal on pool.
 
Michael Andros said:
Yeah, this is going to sound absolutely ridiculous, but somehow, I have a feeling there will be some here who have some idea what I'm talking about.

As I've aged ( and for you youngsters out there, yup... you too. you're on the list: tick, tick, tick ), I've moved into that area and time of life where physically, little things are going wrong and, seemingly more and more frequently, the little things are becoming not-so-little-things. And, yeah, I deal with them, just like everyone else. And as the years flow by, I find myself thinking more and more about the inescapable truth that, eventually, and maybe even not-too-terribly-far-down-the-road, I'm not going to be around. Ok, everyone thinks about that at some time in their lives, I get that. But as you slowly move into the "twilight years", this stuff seems to become a bit more... real. A bit closer to home, as it were.

And, so, pool... and this is the ridiculous part. No matter what issues I'm having, no matter what little things become bigger things, I've discovered this sneaky, unexplainable feeling that, as long as I keep playing pool, I'll be ok. I have nothing, of course, to justify that. No doctor or philosopher or priest has said to me "Go... and play pool. And nothing will harm you." But, that said, that's exactly how I feel. It's almost like magic. I wake up, I think about what needs done today, then I decide what time I'll grab my cue, jump in the car, and head to the pool room. And I know... I KNOW, that as long as I can make it there, put my cue together, powder up and start making balls, nothing can touch me. Nothing can bother me. Nothing can affect me. It's just the Eternal Me and all those beautiful colored balls clicking and clacking as they roll around the table. It's an elixir and a medicine and it's potent. And nothing can hurt me or bring me down. It's my lifeline, in almost a literal sense of the word. My fountain of youth. Not to keep me young, per se. But more to keep anything bad from happening. And at my core? Without even trying to convince myself? I know it's true.

So, yeah... pool. My best friend. My doctor. My philosopher. My priest. And someday, hopefully way down the road, when I do check out, it will be moments after making that last nine in the side. I couldn't think of a better way for this movie to end. So, we'll see. With any luck, it'll be something like that.
Click to expand...

It does sound ridiculous but oh, so true. It's one of those things that I'm really afraid to
actually talk about for fear of it being real.This past weekend we were talking about if
we could go back to our teen years again before lower back pain, mortgage, and bills.
Back to when the wood was something you woke up with every morning and not a
group of trees where they hid dead bodies. Back to when you may have looked at the
paper to read the funnies and the sports section instead of looking at the obituaries
to see if you know anyone that has passed. And that first time you saw a classmate
from high school that passed from a heart attack, or complications of type 2 diabetes
or some other such crap like that, man that made it all so real.
I never thought of pool as a sanctuary, but I guess you're right. I don't know if it keeps
me young (or middle aged) but it definitely helps keep me alive.
 
Celophanewrap said:
It does sound ridiculous but oh, so true. It's one of those things that I'm really afraid to
actually talk about for fear of it being real.This past weekend we were talking about if
we could go back to our teen years again before lower back pain, mortgage, and bills.
Back to when the wood was something you woke up with every morning and not a
group of trees where they hid dead bodies. Back to when you may have looked at the
paper to read the funnies and the sports section instead of looking at the obituaries
to see if you know anyone that has passed. And that first time you saw a classmate
from high school that passed from a heart attack, or complications of type 2 diabetes
or some other such crap like that, man that made it all so real.
I never thought of pool as a sanctuary, but I guess you're right. I don't know if it keeps
me young (or middle aged) but it definitely helps keep me alive.
Click to expand...


It's really not so much that it keeps me young ( although I like to think it does to some extent ), but much more that it keeps me safe. I really do, literally, feel that when I am playing, nothing can harm me. That's the really ridiculous part because it is, of course, ridiculous. Nonetheless, that feeling is there and it's strong.
 
anybody wanna play some?

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