The cue and young you

I started playing pool in the late 80´s and Meucci was THE brand in Germany at that time.
First i had not the moeny for a new cue so i bought a used Huebler from a guy in the local pool hall.
After two years i had enough moeny to buy a new one and bought me a Meucci Oldie 2 following with a 88-6 some years later.
Fast forward.....2011 Bryan Mordt from BCM cues built me my first custom and 2016 my second one.
 
Been a fan of the plain jane Birdseye Maple forearm with a darkwood handle ever since I saw Efrens cue on TV over 20 years ago. I did not know the model nor the cuemaker. So off I went to Pampanga, the mecca of Philippine made cues and had this made based on what I know of Efren's cue, 20oz, 59 inches long made from Birdseye Maple and Philippine Ebony

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Fastforward to 2023 and I was able to buy a Mezz EC9 cue, a wrapless cue with a "birdeyemaple" forearm and buttsleve and black stained handle

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Got tired of the of the Mezz as it was too "plain" not much birdseye on the forearm and the handle was just plain black, decided to sell it last week, and while the buyer was testing my cue, a friend on the other table, lays down his cue, a 2000 Ebony Judd JT-1, I asked if he was selling it and he said yes and the rest is history...

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hang-the-9 said:
I really wanted the title to rhyme :LOL:
About the age of 17/18/19, give or take a year or two, I was going through many a cue catalog out of a big binder the pool hall I learned to play in had lying around.
Of course, with the money I had to spend back then, the prospect of buying that $500-1000+ Schon/Joss/McDermott/Meucci/Black Boar was a bit out of reach. But I sure had fun sitting there looking over the cues over and over putting in my head what I would get when I could. The funny part is that over the next decades I have purchased exactly 0 of the cues I put aside in my head that I would be getting (Schon STL2 with the line and diamond inlay, metal jointed McDermotts like the E-K1, others)

At SBE a friend of mine purchased a Meucci that he wanted to get for the same reasons as me, and I went over to the booth to see what they had, and there was one of my "dream" cues, the knight/shield/sword/mace inlayed Giant Killer design, the model they had was the newer HOF7 one, but all the same to me. Did I buy it and got to scratch the itch? Almost. It's still there for next time.

Anyone else had a cue that was their goal or dream to own? Did you end up getting it?
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My first cue.

It was a carefully considered investment I made one day after another of my runs through the sporting goods department of The Emporium, a glorious downtown department store on Market Street, right across from the cable car turn platform. The store was a throwback to San Francisco’s post earthquake glory days, with a huge glass dome. It was the place my family purchased a good many of our necessities over the years.

At The Emporium, The Cue that became the object of my lust was displayed in a glass case. From the first time I saw it I couldn’t take my eyes off it. And, with every passing visit, my desire and passion grew and grew until it could not be denied. So, somehow I scrimped and saved until I had squirreled away the $29.00 ransom the store wanted for the cue -- with its own faux leather luggage style case with red flocked interior (of course) which showed off the cue to best advantage -- and sealed the deal one memorable weekend.

To me The Cue was a transcendent thing of beauty: polished brass joint; rich polyurethaned walnut forearm; red and black specked nylon wrap (genuine); and a butt plate of iridescent multicolored rings. I thought my Mom and Dad were going to kill me when they found out I had squandered most of my meager funds on “a pool cue?!” and I suffered some withering words, offered in fatherly counsel, about “wasting” my money. But I did not care. Having The Cue in my very own little mitts was worth it all.

Frequently, locked in my room, I would loving wipe down the forearm of The Cue using my Mom’s can of Pledge. To this day, like catching a wafting scent of a perfume favored by an old flame, a whiff of lemon-scented Pledge still reminds me of The Cue and our first summer together.

Lou Figueroa
 
I still have my first cue. Although she has been put out to pasture, and no longer has long hours of play left in her, she will always have a spot on the wall in my cue rack. I think I paid 40-50 bucks for her back in 1990, the year we got our first pool table and the year I fell in love with the game. It was absolutely beautiful to me, the dark stained butt contrasted with the light maple shaft. I knew nothing about cues, or pool for that matter, but I will never forget the day I bought her at Sears.

It was the cue I first beat my granddad with, which was for much of my life a feat unequalled. My friends instinctively knew not to touch it, even if it was not my turn at the table. There are so many good memories playing with that cue, back before I was so caught up in break tips and jump cues and designer chalk and aiming systems and all the other nonsense we focus on nowadays. Me and a bunch of buddies, or better yet my grandpa and dad, would rack 'em up and play until our feet and knees were stiff and sore from stalking around the table- trash talking and sharking each other the whole time. Lord was it fun.

My Red Leaf Dufferin- I named her Elvira. I don't know why, other than that I was 13 and just figured that's what you were supposed to do with your very own pool cue.

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lfigueroa said:
My first cue.

It was a carefully considered investment I made one day after another of my runs through the sporting goods department of The Emporium, a glorious downtown department store on Market Street, right across from the cable car turn platform. The store was a throwback to San Francisco’s post earthquake glory days, with a huge glass dome. It was the place my family purchased a good many of our necessities over the years.

At The Emporium, The Cue that became the object of my lust was displayed in a glass case. From the first time I saw it I couldn’t take my eyes off it. And, with every passing visit, my desire and passion grew and grew until it could not be denied. So, somehow I scrimped and saved until I had squirreled away the $29.00 ransom the store wanted for the cue -- with its own faux leather luggage style case with red flocked interior (of course) which showed off the cue to best advantage -- and sealed the deal one memorable weekend.

To me The Cue was a transcendent thing of beauty: polished brass joint; rich polyurethaned walnut forearm; red and black specked nylon wrap (genuine); and a butt plate of iridescent multicolored rings. I thought my Mom and Dad were going to kill me when they found out I had squandered most of my meager funds on “a pool cue?!” and I suffered some withering words, offered in fatherly counsel, about “wasting” my money. But I did not care. Having The Cue in my very own little mitts was worth it all.

Frequently, locked in my room, I would loving wipe down the forearm of The Cue using my Mom’s can of Pledge. To this day, like catching a wafting scent of a perfume favored by an old flame, a whiff of lemon-scented Pledge still reminds me of The Cue and our first summer together.

Lou Figueroa
Click to expand...
I have a similar story.
I have no clue who made my first cue but I too admired it until I scraped up the money to buy it.
1965 I think.
I am not a cueologist, but for some reason I'm thinking it was a Viking with a yellow wrap.
Moved on to a Willie Hoppe 22 oz. stick that came with a flip top leather Brunswick hustler case.
No longer have either stick or case but I sure would have like to have that case back.
 
jokrswylde said:
I still have my first cue. Although she has been put out to pasture, and no longer has long hours of play left in her, she will always have a spot on the wall in my cue rack. I think I paid 40-50 bucks for her back in 1990, the year we got our first pool table and the year I fell in love with the game. It was absolutely beautiful to me, the dark stained butt contrasted with the light maple shaft. I knew nothing about cues, or pool for that matter, but I will never forget the day I bought her at Sears.

It was the cue I first beat my granddad with, which was for much of my life a feat unequalled. My friends instinctively knew not to touch it, even if it was not my turn at the table. There are so many good memories playing with that cue, back before I was so caught up in break tips and jump cues and designer chalk and aiming systems and all the other nonsense we focus on nowadays. Me and a bunch of buddies, or better yet my grandpa and dad, would rack 'em up and play until our feet and knees were stiff and sore from stalking around the table- trash talking and sharking each other the whole time. Lord was it fun.

My Red Leaf Dufferin- I named her Elvira. I don't know why, other than that I was 13 and just figured that's what you were supposed to do with your very own pool cue.

View attachment 700226
Click to expand...
I started with a similar Dufferin snooker cue and I think it was around $19 CND and that was over 50 years ago with a cheap slimline case around $5 and off to the poolhall I went happy as hell with my new weapon.
 
hang-the-9 said:
... Anyone else had a cue that was their goal or dream to own? Did you end up getting it?
Click to expand...
I wanted one just like Irving Crane's. He was my pool hero. I did finally get it in 1972. George didn't have a catalog -- he made it like you asked for, which in my case was with a leather wrap and two shafts with ivory ferrules (which I guess were standard anyway) and a few inlays.
 
Bob Jewett said:
I wanted one just like Irving Crane's. He was my pool hero. I did finally get it in 1972. George didn't have a catalog -- he made it like you asked for, which in my case was with a leather wrap and two shafts with ivory ferrules (which I guess were standard anyway) and a few inlays.
Click to expand...


Did you measure deflection during that time :)
 
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