surfer rod curry?

"Real pool" is played in real pool halls. If you ever habituated real pool halls, you should know what real pool is. When I saw a reference to straight pool on a bar box, I lost it. Sorry. I was raised in a different game (somewhere between 12 and 14, I was allowed into a real pool hall, and I have never willingly left.) Pool halls are, at base, different than bars -- with different attitudes -- one of which was you played the table, not your opponent.

I am sorry I interjected this controversey here. I'm out.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
"Real pool" is played in real pool halls. If you ever habituated real pool halls, you should know what real pool is. When I saw a reference to straight pool on a bar box, I lost it. Sorry. I was raised in a different game (somewhere between 12 and 14, I was allowed into a real pool hall, and I have never willingly left.) Pool halls are, at base, different than bars -- with different attitudes -- one of which was you played the table, not your opponent.

I am sorry I interjected this controversey here. I'm out.
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You want to know why bar pool flourished???? When i first started playing most 'real pool halls' were dingy, smoke filled shitholes full of single men with no lives. A lot of them still are and that's cool. Times changed and people gravitated to bars for drinks and the opposite sex. Adding pool tables was a no-brainer. I know 'The Hustler" spawned a lot of Brunswick equipped family pool centers but the word 'poolhall' in a lot of minds is still the crapholes of old. Maybe the poolhalls themselves are to blame for not cleaning their act up earlier.
 
jay helfert said:
The "big cue ball" was the ball used on most bar tables back then. It was the size of a billiard ball, and you could do things with that ball that you couldn't with a regular cue ball. It was very hard to draw the big ball and only a few players could do it effectively, Rod being one of them.

Rod was a man of average height, maybe 5'10" or 5'11", and had a well muscled build. I have no idea how he got to be so strong but he was. I can't recall exactly what his job was after he retired from hustling pool, but I know he was extremely well paid. I think he worked for the government in some technical capacity. He was a very intelligent man. I never saw him fight anybody, but the word around the pool world was that he was no one to mess with.
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What was his full name?
 
Here is rod's obit. He appears to have even written it himself. Interesting...
www.legacy.com

Rodney Curray Obituary - (2014) - Strasburg, VA - Northern Virginia Daily

View Rodney Curray's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.
www.legacy.com

So, I came across this coz I wanna know more about another pool monster, Giles Darr, also from same area as rod. Mr. And mrs. Darr commented in linked obit, so they- rod/ darr- knew each other.

Who knows more about Giles darr?
 
Black-Balled said:
Here is rod's obit. He appears to have even written it himself. Interesting...
www.legacy.com

Rodney Curray Obituary - (2014) - Strasburg, VA - Northern Virginia Daily

View Rodney Curray's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.
www.legacy.com

So, I came across this coz I wanna know more about another pool monster, Giles Darr, also from same area as rod. Mr. And mrs. Darr commented in linked obit, so they- rod/ darr- knew each other.

Who knows more about Giles darr?
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I'm guessing he was involved in either jet fighter or missile technology based upon the Pentagon/Hill AFB background. Probably an airdale in the Navy.
 
alstl said:
I'm guessing he was involved in either jet fighter or missile technology based upon the Pentagon/Hill AFB background. Probably an airdale in the Navy.
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The info I referred to has him doing IT work for federal govt. looks like he did database management.
 
Well, maybe one more.

I am sorry that your pool hall experience was different. Mine was idyllic. I threw newspapers six days a week on my bicycle. I kept "sneaking" into the pool hall on my paper route until they tired of throwing me out -- I earned entrance through sheer perserverance. After pedaling and throwing for five miles, I could always find an ice-cold Barq's Root Beer,* in the bottle, and delicious a roast beef po-boy, cheeseburger, or . . . From a tall stool, I could relax in cool dimness to the click and clack from a dozen tables and a tv ball game turned low and survey a world of pure magic and intrigue.

I cleared almost $15.00 a week from my paper route, which was not much, but it went far enough in the pool hall (a root beer was $.10) and at some point, I was even given an account and allowed to charge. This place was my sanctuary from all of the trials and tribulations of my small universe, and I truly believe it provided the same type of refuge to the many other players. Yes, it was a male world, but not dirty and dingy. Throughout my life, I have always sought such places out -- they, and the people in them, repair my soul.

Some of the better players even took time and extreme patience to instruct me, not just about pool but about life (an appropriate counterbalance to my Catholic School elementary education which took place down the road). I cannot imagine this type of interaction occurring in a bar. Tell me this, are young kids allowed to hang out in today's bars in order to further their pool education?

* Born in Biloxi, too.
 
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Giles Darr, c.2014.
He was on little league World Series (finalist) team in 1953. I woulda said they won if they had!
Birmingham (AL) won that year, apparently.
IMG_2633.JPG
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Well, maybe one more.

I am sorry that your pool hall experience was different. Mine was idyllic. I threw newspapers six days a week on my bicycle. I kept "sneaking" into the pool hall on my paper route until they tired of throwing me out -- I earned entrance through sheer perserverance. After pedaling and throwing for five miles, I could always find an ice-cold Barq's Root Beer, in the bottle, and delicious a roast beef po-boy, cheeseburger, or . . . From a tall stool, I could relax in cool dimness to the click and clack from a dozen tables and a tv ball game turned low and survey a world of pure magic and intrigue.
I cleared almost $15.00 a week from my paper route, which was not much, but it went far enough in the pool hall (a root beer was $.10) and at some point, I was even given an account and allowed to charge. This place was my sanctuary from all of the trials and tribulations of my small universe, and I truly believe it provided the same type of refuge to the many other players. Yes, it was a male world, but not dirty and dingy. Throughout my life, I have always sought such places out -- they, and the people in them, repair my soul.

Some of the better players even took time and extreme patience to instruct me, not just about pool but about life (an appropriate counterbalance to my Catholic School elementary education which took place down the road). I cannot imagine this type of interaction occurring in a bar. Tell me this, are young kids allowed to hang out in today's bars in order to further their pool education?
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I actually started in a room a lot like that, a 40's walk-down room in downtown Tulsa. It was semi dingy and little or no women. Most were a lot worse. Looking back is always like some old movie in soft focus. The reality wasn't always so great. 'REAL pool' as you call it may have flourished had owners cleaned them up and attracted a wider clientele. Why do you think the pool-hall stigma lasts to this day? Most were smokey dumps filled with a cast of questionable characters. Runyonesque? Sure but it didn't help the game in the long run.
 
garczar said:
I actually started in a room a lot like that, a 40's walk-down room in downtown Tulsa. It was semi dingy and little or no women. Most were a lot worse. Looking back is always like some old movie in soft focus. The reality wasn't always so great. 'REAL pool' as you call it may have flourished had owners cleaned them up and attracted a wider clientele. Why do you think the pool-hall stigma lasts to this day? Most were smokey dumps filled with a cast of questionable characters. Runyonesque? Sure but it didn't help the game in the long run.
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And there is room for all kinds of pool in our worlds. It ain't crowded!
 
Black-Balled said:
Here is rod's obit. He appears to have even written it himself. Interesting...
www.legacy.com

Rodney Curray Obituary - (2014) - Strasburg, VA - Northern Virginia Daily

View Rodney Curray's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook.
www.legacy.com

So, I came across this coz I wanna know more about another pool monster, Giles Darr, also from same area as rod. Mr. And mrs. Darr commented in linked obit, so they- rod/ darr- knew each other.

Who knows more about Giles darr?
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The correct spelling of his last name was Curry, no A!
 
Here's an obit from where he lived when he died, in the Ogden, UT Standard-Examiner. They managed to get the name right, unlike the other paper.

CropperCapture[661].png
 
(As I see has been mentioned above, which I didn't bother to read this time) Here is a website that appears to be about him...


From that site:

CropperCapture[662].png


I also see now that he posted back then.
 
Biloxi Boy said:
Folks who missed the big ball era will never understand how badly it, and the associated bar boxes, hurt the real game of pool. It was not a good thing and the posters who make it sound like it was are wrong. If it was a good thing, it would still be around. The big ball set pool back 30 years.
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played a tournament, it was my turn to get on a table the guy from the previous game was still shooting, couldnt understand what was going on when he hit the ball, soon as i get to the table, look at the cueball, i go wow, looks as big as a carom ball, they played a tournament match with it never even noticing
 
alphadog said:
I watched a great collegiate player, maybe Meardon , pull this shot off with the cueball resting on top of the Rail. He did it effortlessly 😎
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I used to put the cue ball on a piece of chalk on the top and center of the head rail and the object ball frozen to the center of the end rail. Not too hard to make once you figure it out.
 
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