Sure miss them old pool rooms of years long ago that seem to be gone

G

GreenPoolChalk

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Was thinking about some of the old pool room I use to play in that were pretty much all pool, and nothing else.

Sure you could by a beer, soft drink, or candy bar. Some even had those silver metal box warmer were they would put a hot dog in cellophane warper to warm em up.

But there was not rock and roll, or rap playing, and those rooms were all about pool.

Those were to good old days, and I have not run across any places like that in my travels any longer. Anyone else have those fond memories?
 
Raytown Rec. is still an old pool hall,down in the basement owned by Don Brink, family ran. He and his son Doug are 3-cushion billiard players. They have a heated European table and the old gold crowns ,plus a 5x 10 that gets a lot of one pocket play.The action is slow but some good players come out of there. A lot of road players came througt, don't know if they still do.
Gin card playing all the time and the coffee is free, no rap crap,soft music.
Anyone been there??
 
I know exactly what you are saying. I am at a constant battle with the pool room owner at the place I play at. They have great food and the best tables in town, but the jukebox is always playing too loud. I tell him I came to shoot pool, and if I wanted to go to a DANCE CLUB there are 30 or so to choose from and this is not one of them. The only monkeys that want the music on that loud are the BAR HUGGERS(you know the ones that should have their livers donated to science), and the BANGERS.
 
Diamonds

If you are in, or slide through Dallas, check out Diamonds. It is a new place but as close to a pool hall as I have seen in many a moon. I have to say that Buffalo Billiards in Metairie(New Orleans) Louisiana comes awful close to an old style pool hall too. Nice regulars, Buff is super, somehow it just isn't the same as the old time halls though. I think I miss the ratty tables and a wall fan blowing city stink around the room.

There are some new generation high class places to play pool that I really like, they seem more like a place a sport would be played in than a gambling dive and they should be great for the sport. I still miss the Shoppers Pool Halls, the Tee Neg's, Nick's Steak House, and the places with names long forgotten where you step through the door and you can't tell if it is 2007 or 1957 however.

If I ever hit for the big bucks I think I would open two places, a nice slick polished place with all the bells and whistles to promote the sport and a gritty old hall where the old road dogs would feel at home.

Late breaking thought, Greenways in Baton Rouge was pretty new and modern when I was cutting my pool playing teeth. The last time I went in there it was pretty old and gritty looking, I think the last few decades have passed it by.

Hu
 
The room I owned in East Islip, NY was 100?X25?. You thought you were walking into the inside of a railroad boxcar with pool tables in it. When I first got it spittoons were on the floor next to the wall by each table. The front window had chicken wire in front of it so the balls didn?t hit the window.

I had 7 early 1900 Brunswick pool tables with subway returns and a Brunswick Billiard table with two sets of ivory balls. The floor was tile, the walls paneled, and it only had one coed bathroom. The two front tables had four people each on them from 12 PM to 12 AM 7 days a week playing cheap rotation-money-ball. Those two tables more than covered expenses. The rest was gravy. Johnnyt
 
that's a pool hall!

Sounds like a great place. Those old halls were halls, one table plus playing room wide or a little more and so deep it was a little hard to see the far wall. As I have said probably too many times before, I could step into a hall like that anywhere in the country and feel like I was home before the front door finished closing.

Hu


Johnnyt said:
The room I owned in East Islip, NY was 100?X25?. You thought you were walking into the inside of a railroad boxcar with pool tables in it. When I first got it spittoons were on the floor next to the wall by each table. The front window had chicken wire in front of it so the balls didn?t hit the window.

I had 7 early 1900 Brunswick pool tables with subway returns and a Brunswick Billiard table with two sets of ivory balls. The floor was tile, the walls paneled, and it only had one coed bathroom. The two front tables had four people each on them from 12 PM to 12 AM 7 days a week playing cheap rotation-money-ball. Those two tables more than covered expenses. The rest was gravy. Johnnyt
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I grew up in Raytown Rec. its a classic pool hall, never seen anything that compares since i moved outta K.C., Been in cali, Vegas, Palm Beach, Dallas, Houston and called all home, nothing like the Rec! When Shooters in Olathe opened some of the guys that had to drive from North K.C and Kansas stopped coming regularly but it was still the place for the action. I still talk about Big bertha ( 5 x 10 ) and have very found memories of Doug Brink, Jamie, Al, Old man Jim, Used carmand Tony, Steve, Danny Hill, Soldier, The twins, Rick Thompson, Conway and the bunch

Cue club in vegas was ok...

Hollywood Billards in FL. was a pretty impressive place

Bogies in houston is imo the Best room in the country, but far from an oldschool room

Diamonds in Dallas is pretty nice, its still not real busy, But its getting their and is extremely action player friendly.


I talked to Mrs. Brink the last time i came to K.C. and she mentioned that the city was buying them out and the Rec. wouldnt be around much longer, but that was awhile ago, I guess its still alive.
 
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Johnnyt said:
The room I owned in East Islip, NY was 100?X25?. You thought you were walking into the inside of a railroad boxcar with pool tables in it.
Johnnyt
Click to expand...

Sounds much like the first pool room I ever played in...Pete's Pool Room in Norwich, NY...one row of tables (6 of 'em)...hardwood floors, wooden bench along one side...the counter and bathroom on the other side. No juke box, but there was a radio behind the counter that usually had the Yankees game on. Put a dime on the end rail and holler "Rack, Pete!", and Pete came over, racked the balls, and scooped up the dime.
Thanks for some great memories!
Steve
 
There's only one left here called Wichta Billards. It's located near the downtown area. First time I went there was about 20 years ago. The place was full of old men playing checkers and dominos. They had about 3 or 4 pool tables. First time I saw a snooker table.
 
I ALSO PLAYER IN JIM Mc Daniels in Independence,MO. square.One room with Two snooker tables that was busy ,playing golf. Don't remember what the 4 1/2 x 9's were. Had one small bathroom, spittons and a roll of wooden benchers.Had wooden floors and if you dropped a coin, bye bye down a crack. lol Jim Mc shot under handed and played the roaders.Bill Lawson, Greg Stevens, U.J.Pucket and who ever.Anyone been there???
 
Raytown

TxOnePocket said:
I grew up in Raytown Rec. its a classic pool hall, never seen anything that compares since i moved outta K.C., Been in cali, Vegas, Palm Beach, Dallas, Houston and called all home, nothing like the Rec! When Shooters in Olathe opened some of the guys that had to drive from North K.C and Kansas stopped coming regularly but it was still the place for the action. I still talk about Big bertha ( 5 x 10 ) and have very found memories of Doug Brink, Jamie, Al, Old man Jim, Used carmand Tony, Steve, Danny Hill, Soldier, The twins, Rick Thompson, Conway and the bunch

Cue club in vegas was ok...

Hollywood Billards in FL. was a pretty impressive place

Bogies in houston is imo the Best room in the country, but far from an oldschool room

Diamonds in Dallas is pretty nice, its still not real busy, But its getting their and is extremely action player friendly.


I talked to Mrs. Brink the last time i came to K.C. and she mentioned that the city was buying them out and the Rec. wouldnt be around much longer, but that was awhile ago, I guess its still alive.
Click to expand...
I may know you in the same time span. I played a lot of 1 pocket with Eddie Ryan,Big Tony, Keith Patterson, Danny Hill, Joe Williams and a few more.I always had action.
 
I miss Mothers here in Charlotte. It was the last real action room in the area. Front room for beaters & well kept Diamonds in the back for serious players. I used to run a Mon. night 9 ball tourney that would draw 50+ players...1st place paid as high as $1500. Often there would be more than a half dozen pros...and another 20-30 players who could beat any of them. Almost every top player in the world came through there at some point. Sadly the local room owners now could care less about action or drawing quality players...in effort to make max profit, they simply cater to the league crowd in order to fill the rooms to standing room only. I remember often at Mothers we'd have so much action in the back room (10 tables) that when the league teams would show up I'd send them grumbling into the front room Big G's...:D
If anyone is flush with cash...this area is PRIMETIME for another real room...with proper management & ownership of course.;)
 
PIRANHA said:
Raytown Rec. is still an old pool hall,down in the basement owned by Don Brink, family ran. He and his son Doug are 3-cushion billiard players. They have a heated European table and the old gold crowns ,plus a 5x 10 that gets a lot of one pocket play.The action is slow but some good players come out of there. A lot of road players came througt, don't know if they still do.
Gin card playing all the time and the coffee is free, no rap crap,soft music.
Anyone been there??
Click to expand...
I have been there but it has been several years.
 
PIRANHA said:
Raytown Rec. is still an old pool hall,down in the basement owned by Don Brink, family ran.
Anyone been there??
Click to expand...

Ohh, I have been there a time or two :D

Aint the same as it used to be though.
 
I feel like I missed out. I never have been to a pool hall that was all about pool and nothing more. When I heard this line in the hustler:

"No bar, no pinball machines, no bowling alleys, just pool... nothing else."

I just about cried to think that places like that used to exist.

Our local pool hall has an owner who's also a player and cares about the equipment, but he also needs the banger and teen business so there's a jukebox, and I'm often fighting with the counter about the volume. I was in the final match of the tournament last week and the counter girl cranked the shit way up because a song she liked came on. It really irritates me that even employees don't understand.
 
GreenPoolChalk said:
Was thinking about some of the old pool room I use to play in that were pretty much all pool, and nothing else.

Sure you could by a beer, soft drink, or candy bar. Some even had those silver metal box warmer were they would put a hot dog in cellophane warper to warm em up.

But there was not rock and roll, or rap playing, and those rooms were all about pool.

Those were to good old days, and I have not run across any places like that in my travels any longer. Anyone else have those fond memories?
Click to expand...

Heck, yeah. Gone are the days of what I consider REAL pool rooms. In my area today, pool rooms are celebrated sports bars, pick-up joints, and all have loud music and multiple TVs for sports games and screaming sports fans.

Since I roam primarily on the East Coast, my pick for "cool" pool rooms from days gone by would have to be the two Bakers, Bakers in Tampa and Bakers in Greensboro, North Carolina.

In the good old days (LOL), these two pool rooms placed POOL as the number-one attraction as opposed to sports games, booze, loud music, et cetera.

In Metro D.C. area, my choices of COOL pool rooms from days gone by would be the old Bill and Billies in Glen Burnie (today, it's Jack and Jill's), the old Jack and Jill's in Virginia owned by Weenie Beenie (today, it's gone), and Randolph Hills Billiards in Rockville, Maryland (today, it's gone). None of them served booze, and ACTION was always "special of the day" on the menu. :D

JAM
 
Family Fun Center in Denver

For me, the place was the Family Fun Center in Denver at 38th $ Sheridan.
The first time I walked in the place, Sam Jones and Al Hogue were playing golf on the snooker table for like $20 $ $2. Good action in 1970. Andy Hudson and Whitey Jack were playin $30 1 pocket and Danny Medina was playing Pic 9 ball, giving Pic the 5 and the break for $500 a game. In the back corner, Dave Nottingham and Joey Torman were dumping a kid who ran a gas station playing $50 sets. On the rail was Bill Ackerman, Leroy Reynolds, Jerry Lawson, Bill Barnes, and the one everyone was trying to trap, Freddie the Jap. Last but hardly least, the fatman Marty Kaman was putting a hotdog eating exhibition and nobody was about to challenge him.
The place had it all, nice equipment, a great kitchen {with one of the best chiliburggers on the planet and a miserable ***** of an owner named Jerry who once threw a meat clever at me.
Yes I miss the place and most of the above mentioned are gone and truly missed or just too pooped to pop.
Teryy Mcfadden eventually bought the Fun Center and called it Paradise Billiards until recently selling out. He too was a great owner and loved the players.
Sorry, just a walk down my own Memory Lane and thoughts about some friends I really miss.
 
PIRANHA said:
Raytown Rec. is still an old pool hall,down in the basement owned by Don Brink, family ran. He and his son Doug are 3-cushion billiard players. They have a heated European table and the old gold crowns ,plus a 5x 10 that gets a lot of one pocket play.The action is slow but some good players come out of there. A lot of road players came througt, don't know if they still do.
Gin card playing all the time and the coffee is free, no rap crap,soft music.
Anyone been there??
Click to expand...
Yep! In my top 3 alltime favorite rooms. :cool:
 
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