Terry, I got your PM and tried to answer you in a PM, but my response was too long and wouldn't go through. I hope you don't mind if I answer you in this manner.
Scotty and I sat down at the counter to have a drink before moving on. After a little small talk the counterman shook his head and said, "You fellas don't know who that old man is, do you?". He pointed to some writing high up on one wall. It was the name of the pool room followed by, "Home of World Champion, Luther 'Wimpy' Lassiter". There was a picture of Luther in his younger days and after a few glances from the old man back to the picture we realized that we were indeed in the presence of one of the ledgends of our sport.
We didn't interrupt his game but we knew we weren't going anywhere. We watched and were amazed that Luther still played good even at his advanced age. He was spotting his much, much younger oppenent the five-ball.
At one point the cue ball was near the middle of the table and the object ball near the middle of the end rail. Luther climbed up on the table ( a privilege he had obviously earned) and sliced the object ball in. The cue ball came back up the table and hit Luther before he could get out of the way. Luther laughed and said "That's an old age foul".
At this point Luther put his cue down and walked over to us. He asked, "You boys on the road?" When we told him we had been on the road for about four months and were headed home he asked if we had time to sit down and talk for awhile.
For the next two hours we swapped information and stories. His health was failing and he spent most of his time at home, rarely making it to the pool room. He had pretty much lost contact with the outside world. For those two hours we were his eyes to the present day pool world and he was our eyes to some of the history of our sport.
Sadly, during our time with Mr. Lassiter I sensed that he was very aware that his time here was growing short. I don't know what his demeanor was like when he was younger, but from the time I got to spend with him I can say he was one of the most gracious persons I've ever met.
First, let me tell you how I met Wimpy. It was a once in a lifetime chance meeting. I had been to the last of the Atlantic City tournaments with my road partner, Scotty Townsend. The winter was very cold and as soon as the tournament was over we wanted to get back to Florida ASAP. I was driving while Scotty slept. It was late afternoon and I had been driving in a coma for awhile. I didn't know what state we were in, let alone what city was next, but we were running out of gas. I took the first exit I came to and found a gas station. After filling up, I thought, "What the heck, we're here", and asked the attendant if there was a pool hall in this town where there might be some action. He gave me directions to a room only a few blocks away. I woke Scotty up and we could hear balls banging as we went up the flight of wooden stairs. We entered to find only the the counterman and two people playing pool in the building. One of the persons playing was an elderly man with his grey hair tussled and a five day growth of beard. He was playing pool with a heavy down vest on as it was cold even inside.Terry Ardeno said:
Scotty and I sat down at the counter to have a drink before moving on. After a little small talk the counterman shook his head and said, "You fellas don't know who that old man is, do you?". He pointed to some writing high up on one wall. It was the name of the pool room followed by, "Home of World Champion, Luther 'Wimpy' Lassiter". There was a picture of Luther in his younger days and after a few glances from the old man back to the picture we realized that we were indeed in the presence of one of the ledgends of our sport.
We didn't interrupt his game but we knew we weren't going anywhere. We watched and were amazed that Luther still played good even at his advanced age. He was spotting his much, much younger oppenent the five-ball.
At one point the cue ball was near the middle of the table and the object ball near the middle of the end rail. Luther climbed up on the table ( a privilege he had obviously earned) and sliced the object ball in. The cue ball came back up the table and hit Luther before he could get out of the way. Luther laughed and said "That's an old age foul".
At this point Luther put his cue down and walked over to us. He asked, "You boys on the road?" When we told him we had been on the road for about four months and were headed home he asked if we had time to sit down and talk for awhile.
For the next two hours we swapped information and stories. His health was failing and he spent most of his time at home, rarely making it to the pool room. He had pretty much lost contact with the outside world. For those two hours we were his eyes to the present day pool world and he was our eyes to some of the history of our sport.
Sadly, during our time with Mr. Lassiter I sensed that he was very aware that his time here was growing short. I don't know what his demeanor was like when he was younger, but from the time I got to spend with him I can say he was one of the most gracious persons I've ever met.
