When I was old enough to get into bars, I started playing pool. I'm not much of a socializer, so I would go into bars to get drunk and play pool. I was a banger to the 9th degree, I would slam every shot in because I enjoyed hitting them at warp speed and seeing them go in the pocket. I sucked for the most part, but could beat many of the bangers. I guess I had a better eye then they did, but I always lost to these losers that would hit the ball softly, because they got out and I didn't. Little did I know they were actually playing shape on balls whereas I shot wherever I ended up after the cueball flew around the table 4 times ricocheting off balls right and left. The allure of pool to me was shooting and making all these hard shots (because that was what I was left with most of the time after propelling the cueball at 90 mph)
I would say I enjoyed pool from 21 to 23 or so, but it was a take it or leave it game to me.. if I was around a table, I would play, but I didn't go to a bar specifically to play pool, I was there to get high and drunk
That all changed the day I discovered the 211 Club at 2nd and Union in downtown Seattle. That particular day, my whole outlook on pool changed 180 degrees.
I had just moved to Seattle and was supposed to be looking for a job. Being a country boy, it was my first foray into a big city and looking for a job was tough to do. I had no transportation, so I was riding a bus. I discovered that all the buses ended up downtown so I would take the bus downtown and get off. Downtown in a big city was fascinating to me with all the big skyscrapers, the thousands of people walking around on the streets, the wild spectrum of people you saw.
So I was telling my brother I was out looking for a job, but in actuality I was just taking a bus downtown and walking around checking everything out.
One day I was walking around and I saw this old building all rundown and it had the words pool hall on the outside. I got curious and thought what the hell, I'll check it out. It had a elevator at street level that took you up a few floors. I punched the button and while riding up, was taking in the wafting smell of urine from the stairs next to it. I was thinking maybe this isn't such a good idea.
But when that elevator door creaked open and I stepped out, my life changed at that very moment. I went from the bright sunlight outside, to a creaky groaning elevator ride, to the doors sliding open to reveal a very dark huge room where the only light was the light shining down on the 9 ft Gold Crowns.
I stepped out and cautiously made my way into the room navigating around tables where old men were playing cards or chess and made my way to the counter to get a beer. I was greeted with a "Whadda want". I could tell the guy didn't want to get up off his chair and take my order, but he eventually slid off the chair and got me a Bud. I turned around to take in my surroundings and it was the most beautiful place I had ever been to. Which is weird to say, as I had never been in a pool hall and was not in any way hooked on pool at that point. But I guess fate was kind to me that day, because it was in me to fall in a love with a place like this, but I didn't know that. I just had to be introduced to it.
It took several minutes for my eyes to adjust but I scanned the room and took in the beauty of it all. It was breathtaking to me. I had never seen a 9 ft table before, except one in my uncle's basement but it had some crappy cloth on it and was mostly covered up with crap all the time. I saw rows and rows of 9 ft Gold Crowns with beautiful green Simonis cloth on them. The lights were bright and lit up each table. The more I scanned the room, the more interesting stuff I saw. I saw in the corner, these HUMONGOUS tables (6x12 Snooker tables) I was blown away by the size of those cubs. I saw other tables with 2 red balls and 1 white ball and I watched but never saw a ball go down. Eventually I noticed the tables had no pockets:smile: I was really curious about that one.. never seen a table with no pockets.
After taking in all the beautiful equipment, I started focusing on the people at the tables. The very front table I noticed had 2 very focused guys playing on it. I had never seen 9 ball being played so that was interesting in itself. I noticed that the guys playing would lay down monstrous breaks when they broke the rack open. I had never seen anyone hit the balls that hard before. I eventually figured out that they were shooting the balls in sequence and if they missed the other guy would pick up where they left off.
I was too scared to ask anybody anything because everyone looked scary to me.
It was a wild mixture of people there, people I was not used to seeing. Growing up on a farm in Nebraska did not expose me to people other then farmers in overalls. Now I'm looking at scruffy old men, young guys with big gold bracelets and rings on their fingers, well dressed men in suits, very tough looking guys with scowls on their face.
I will never forget the atmosphere of the room either. It was dead quiet except of the balls clicking or the tremendous whack when they broke or the hushed murmurs of the people watching them play. Everyone seemed so serious and focused, I was petrified standing in the corner, afraid to move and get in someone's way.
I noticed that money was being thrown in the pockets after each game. I saw people talking crap to each other while trying to get a game or after they lost. I saw money being passed around from the crowd to the player winning.
But the most fascinating thing I saw, above even the beauty of what seemed to be miles of tables with bright lights above them over immaculate clean bright green tables, was the way these guys played.
I was completely transfixed with the beauty of which these guys shot the balls in. Once I figured out that they were shooting them in order, I knew that they had to shoot a particular ball next. I noticed that when they shot the ball, they did it effortlessly. I noticed that each shot they took, seemed to almost be a easy one, because they would make that cueball go exactly where they wanted it to. I would watch them softly stroke the ball and somehow the cueball would spin around and end up with a easy shot on the next ball. It was so cool to watch the cueball do all this wild stuff I had never seen before. The cueball seemed to dance on a string and do exactly what they wanted it to do.
Being a banger in a bar, I had never seen the cueball do things I was seeing it do that day. They were making the ball back up 2 lengths of the table, they would hit it so softly but after it hit a rail it would haul azz. They would hit the ball and I would think the only way the ball could go, it would suddenly go a completely different direction then what I thought was possible.
This was my first introduction into the world of follow, draw, reverse and running english. I saw things that I later would come to know as kill, drag, pinch, stun, swerve and masse. I had never seen a masse shot in my life up until that day.
The whole game of pool changed forever for me that day. I was completely and forever hooked on pool from that day forward. I was completely taken in with the beauty of the game. I was transfixed, mesmerized with everything I was drinking in.
The entire combination of the people I saw, the way they played the game, the surroundings, the attitude. It completely took over my entire body and mind.
What seemed like a hour turned into me standing in one spot for several hours. I didn't say a word to anyone, I just stood there, drinking it all in. Before I knew it, it was time for me to go and I didn't want to. But I quietly slinked out of there, being careful to not get in anyone's way.
I thought about everything I had seen and experienced all that night and could not wait to go there again the next day. I got up the next day and quickly got on a bus and headed downtown to 2nd and Union. I anticipated the feeling I would get when that elevator door opened.
From that day on, I was hooked. To this day, all those things I saw that day, are what I love about pool. Before long I was going there every day, I started striking up conversations with people there and discovered I was at home when I was there. Those guys all became my closest friends and that place became my 2nd home. I went on to work as a houseman at this place.
So I give my shout out to the 211 Club and that fateful day I wandered across this stinky azz elevator and rode it up to the top. And that moment that door opened and my eyes adjusted, will be a moment I will never forget.
Thank you 211 and John Teerink and all the guys (and a few girls) there, for the wonderful memories and wonderful relationships that I will forever cherish. Those truly were the days. Back when pool was pool.
Some of the people that made up that place back in the early 80's when I went in there....John Teerink - Owner and champion 3 cushion and Golf player, his wife Betty, Sammy the Houseman Jones, Dan Louie, Harry Platis, Bill Webb, Roger Petit - famed cuemaker, New York Mel, Joe Chun, Vince Frayne & Lila, California Red, Cliff Thayer - champion straight pool player, Mike Zimmerman, Mike Danner, Bill Cress, Todd Marsh, J.D., Go-off Tom, Crazy Gary, Slim, Don Wirtaman, Raul, all of Johns 3 cushion buddies, all the old guys that had been coming in their whole life, Taxi Mel, Lynda Moore, Little Al, Shoji (one handed monster), Lake City Red, and the countless other guys that I see in my mind, but have forgotten their names. Plus the road players that always stopped by Seattle to try and pick Harry's pocket.... Warren Monk Constanza, Cole Dickson, Weenie Beenie, Flyboy, Smilie (great banker from Spokane I think) and all the other top pros that stopped by.
I am so blessed to know what it was like to live in one of the most famed pool halls west of the Mississippi.:thumbup:
PS: (sorry for lying to you bro about looking for a job, but it was like a drug and I was hooked from the 1st taste)
PSS: Here's a few more threads about this place, where I descibe it in detail
1. My first post ever on AZB -
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=36569
2. A thread about the Death of a Houseman -
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=1797656&postcount=22
3. A thread about Music in a pool room -
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=1673132&postcount=97
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