I hesitate to write this because it's somewhat personal but, here it is.
One morning very early this year I was practicing on my favored table in the back of pool hall. A young woman walked in with a small boy. I'm terrible at guessing the ages of kids but he was somewhere before a tween -- dark hair, skinny, well dressed in kakis and a rugby shirt. He had his own cheapie cue in a soft case and seemed a very quiet, very intense type. They took a table several away from me while I was practicing some 14.1 and running a fair number of balls. And after about a half an hour the woman approached me and said, "Excuse me sir but it looks like you know what you're doing. Would you mind giving my son some pointers?"
Now, normally, I might have demurred -- I consider my practice time sacred but something about her gentleness touched me and I said, "Sure."
At his mother's urging (pushing) he approached me and stood at my table and I asked, "Are you ready to learn something?" And he imperceptibly nodded. And so I spoke to him softly, telling him, "Pool is a game of precision and repeatability. If you are precise in your set up and execution you will be able to repeat your setup and reliably pocket balls."
So we began. I set up a small series of shots. Corrected his stance, grip, and bridge and tell him, "I know it's a lot. But if you stick with it you'll be able to do it without thinking. Trust me." And, as I suppose you would expect, he has a modicum of success and after about 40 minutes the woman says, "Kevin, it's time to go. Thank the man." And, in a very serious fashion, he walks up to me and shakes my hand, and says, "Thank you."
Mom and son walk to the bar to pay time and she buys him a Coke and after a few minutes walks back to me and says, "I cannot thank you enough for what you just did. Kevin's dad died two months ago in a work accident and we're on our way to my mom's house. He seems kind of lost and still in shock." And suddenly she gives me a big hug, softly crying on my shoulder.
I don't know what else to say except that sometimes, even in the pool hall, there is room to do a good thing.
Lou Figueroa
Meeting and making new friends made it fun.
