Either no women were allowed in the Pool Hall in Cedar Vale, or no respectable woman would enter the establishment. So, from the time I was a small boy, my mother would send me into the wicked place to fetch my dad who could be found in the smoke-filled back room, smoking a cigar and playing Pinochle at one of the two or three tables. He was never ready to leave, so I’d sit and watch them play out the hand, or a few more hands. I was never sure what was so bad about the place. It seemed OK to me.
Fast forward to my teenage years when I began to hang out there myself and learned to play pool; Alabama or 8 ball, Rotation, and Snooker. I was a pretty good player but the same muscles that made me a good sprinter in track and football made me an erratic pool shooter. And the more excited I became while playing, the wilder I got. Oh well, luck sometimes trumps skill!
I believe that they served beer there but by the time I was 18 and could legally have a beer, I still hadn’t acquired the taste. Now I enjoy a glass of wine or beer with my dinner.
As I recall there was one snooker table, with the smaller more difficult pockets, and maybe 3 regular pool tables. All of them were full sized and we didn’t know about smaller “quarter” tables then.
My friend Jim Buchele had a full sized snooker table on the third floor of his parents' house on southeast Main Street. It always amazed me that they could get that large table all the way up the narrow stairs to the third floor. I found out years later that most of the tables come apart and the top is actually 3 pieces of slate that weight only about 200 pounds each.
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3 comments:
You are right, ladies just didn't go into the pool hall! I doubt that many of the ladies cared about not going in! When my Dad would drive me in for some school function, he would wait for me in the pool hall. I always hated trying to get his attention when it was time for me to go home. I would wait outside hoping someone would finally see me. It was the same thing at the beer saloon across the street. A couple of ladies would go into the bar with their husbands and have drinks. When people walked by and saw them in the bar it was really scandalous!! Times sure have changed. NB Howell
Very interesting, Jay D.!
As a boy the Pool Hall was a forbidden place. As such it became more interesting to me. Years later when I came back to town to practice my profession, I used to while away slow summer aternoons playing Pinocle with the good ol' boys. My receptionist could run me down if my sevices were needed. Yes it was a smoky place with some raw language and bawdy stories, but I did hear a lot of stories and history from the old boys.
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