Pardon the title ladies and I hope the men will show proper deference to the women who helped to add such great color to the game.
It was in the early 1980's, maybe 1982. My son was a few years older than "Tenneco's" son. Tenneco was one of New Orleans most notorious pool gamblers. It is important to note that Tenneco seldom ever gambled at anything other than pool. Pool was his passion and gambling was what lit his torch. You would almost never see him practicing but he was constantly in action. With a legal six figure income back in the 80's, he was primo action on any given day. People would get in arguments with one another and many a time, a fight would almost ensue because someone wanted to corner the market with Tenneco on a particular day, maybe to pay the rent or just to pad their pocket.
Regardless of who he played, Tenneco would put on a show. Most often he lost but when he won, if you had any money, he would get it all. Everyone knew you had a chance to make a good score with Tenneco and no one dared to screw up your chances in the future.
We gambled dozens of times over the years with me winning most of the matches, despite Tenneco's unmitigated gall. He had a habit of standing in front of the pocket (your pocket) when he played 1 PKT. Even in the summertime, he wore white long-sleeved shirts which he would always unbutton the cuff and rolled them three times so that his forearm's skin would show. While you were shooting, Tenneco who would be holding his cue vertically in his left hand with the butt seated on the floor with his belly about 6" from "your" pocket facing you. His right hand dangled and twitched a little but for the most part, his hand and fingers were pointing to the floor and were the closest to the floor. Just as you were about to pull the trigger, Tenneco would shoot his right arm straight up into the air, like a bullet. Without a doubt, he had to possess fast twitch muscles. His rolled/cuffed long sleeve shirt dropped & fluttered earthward like that girl friend's nightgown in your dreams of yesteryear. If you gave him a dirty look, he would give a knowing smirk of approval. It was his trademark. If you wanted to play him, it was your cross to bear.
Tenneco for sure, lost more money than any other pool player over the decades that I knew him. Granted, he made a few really good scores of which I was responsible for at least a few of them. (I was one of the few people who he said could really get him in stroke.) Now you can only imagine what his young wife thought about him going off for enormous sums of money on a regular basis. At the time he was married to a very beautiful girl, and yeah, she had red hair at least the one time I ever saw her. That day it seemed that everything she was made of was on fire. I never really knew here name and didn't know who she was but Tenneco had been in the pool room for a couple of days without leaving. (He could get a little ripe after the second day) He had been gambling the whole month rather severely and was taking a serious beating at the hands of different people each day. On this particular day he had a one pocket match with one of the locals for some decent table stakes and they were going at each other pretty hard for a few hours with his opponent not able to take him down. In walks this attractive but thin and shapely girl with a child about 3 or 4 years old on her hip. Keep in mind, that at the Sport Palace, gambling was revered and disturbing a match in play was tantamount to physically attacking the Pope on Good Friday. Her eyes were filled with the anger that only a woman can conjure. I wasn't close to the table where they were gambling and his wife walked past me at a fast pace, child glued to her hip, eyes ablaze and riveted on Tenneco.
He didn't see her come in the door but as she made her way across the pool room floor, his eyes widened with surprise and fear. Yeah, he feared this hot-headed woman for sure. He knew he had done wrong and he was caught like a rat in one of those humane traps with no where to go. Heated words spewed rapidly out of her mouth. I couldn't hear all of the words but suffice it to say that it was all bad. Tenneco just stood there taking his verbal whipping like a man should when he has no defense for his actions. No more than a couple of minutes had past and his wife took the toddler and placed the toddler right on top of the pool table, scattering balls in every direction. His opponent who was hoping for a score that day, watched in horror as the young wife scolded Tenneco one more time, cursing him and telling him that "NOW, YOU CAN JUST GO AND RAISE HIM YOURSELF", walking out of the pool room just as fast as she came in.
No one said a word as she marched past each of us and then all eyes were on Tenneco. Even his opponent had a moment of compassion but that ended rather quickly as his opponent demanded that he be paid for the last unfinished game.
JoeyA
It was in the early 1980's, maybe 1982. My son was a few years older than "Tenneco's" son. Tenneco was one of New Orleans most notorious pool gamblers. It is important to note that Tenneco seldom ever gambled at anything other than pool. Pool was his passion and gambling was what lit his torch. You would almost never see him practicing but he was constantly in action. With a legal six figure income back in the 80's, he was primo action on any given day. People would get in arguments with one another and many a time, a fight would almost ensue because someone wanted to corner the market with Tenneco on a particular day, maybe to pay the rent or just to pad their pocket.
Regardless of who he played, Tenneco would put on a show. Most often he lost but when he won, if you had any money, he would get it all. Everyone knew you had a chance to make a good score with Tenneco and no one dared to screw up your chances in the future.
We gambled dozens of times over the years with me winning most of the matches, despite Tenneco's unmitigated gall. He had a habit of standing in front of the pocket (your pocket) when he played 1 PKT. Even in the summertime, he wore white long-sleeved shirts which he would always unbutton the cuff and rolled them three times so that his forearm's skin would show. While you were shooting, Tenneco who would be holding his cue vertically in his left hand with the butt seated on the floor with his belly about 6" from "your" pocket facing you. His right hand dangled and twitched a little but for the most part, his hand and fingers were pointing to the floor and were the closest to the floor. Just as you were about to pull the trigger, Tenneco would shoot his right arm straight up into the air, like a bullet. Without a doubt, he had to possess fast twitch muscles. His rolled/cuffed long sleeve shirt dropped & fluttered earthward like that girl friend's nightgown in your dreams of yesteryear. If you gave him a dirty look, he would give a knowing smirk of approval. It was his trademark. If you wanted to play him, it was your cross to bear.
Tenneco for sure, lost more money than any other pool player over the decades that I knew him. Granted, he made a few really good scores of which I was responsible for at least a few of them. (I was one of the few people who he said could really get him in stroke.) Now you can only imagine what his young wife thought about him going off for enormous sums of money on a regular basis. At the time he was married to a very beautiful girl, and yeah, she had red hair at least the one time I ever saw her. That day it seemed that everything she was made of was on fire. I never really knew here name and didn't know who she was but Tenneco had been in the pool room for a couple of days without leaving. (He could get a little ripe after the second day) He had been gambling the whole month rather severely and was taking a serious beating at the hands of different people each day. On this particular day he had a one pocket match with one of the locals for some decent table stakes and they were going at each other pretty hard for a few hours with his opponent not able to take him down. In walks this attractive but thin and shapely girl with a child about 3 or 4 years old on her hip. Keep in mind, that at the Sport Palace, gambling was revered and disturbing a match in play was tantamount to physically attacking the Pope on Good Friday. Her eyes were filled with the anger that only a woman can conjure. I wasn't close to the table where they were gambling and his wife walked past me at a fast pace, child glued to her hip, eyes ablaze and riveted on Tenneco.
He didn't see her come in the door but as she made her way across the pool room floor, his eyes widened with surprise and fear. Yeah, he feared this hot-headed woman for sure. He knew he had done wrong and he was caught like a rat in one of those humane traps with no where to go. Heated words spewed rapidly out of her mouth. I couldn't hear all of the words but suffice it to say that it was all bad. Tenneco just stood there taking his verbal whipping like a man should when he has no defense for his actions. No more than a couple of minutes had past and his wife took the toddler and placed the toddler right on top of the pool table, scattering balls in every direction. His opponent who was hoping for a score that day, watched in horror as the young wife scolded Tenneco one more time, cursing him and telling him that "NOW, YOU CAN JUST GO AND RAISE HIM YOURSELF", walking out of the pool room just as fast as she came in.
No one said a word as she marched past each of us and then all eyes were on Tenneco. Even his opponent had a moment of compassion but that ended rather quickly as his opponent demanded that he be paid for the last unfinished game.
JoeyA
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, (sorry guys my girl is reading this with a knife to my throat) I mean I am madly in love with a beautiful redhead. 
