Last night we watched the movie THE
COLOR OF MONEY (1980) directed by Martin Scorsese; starring Paul Newman and Tom
Cruise.
Tom Cruise is young and hyper,
which he plays hyper so well.
It was a movie about the game of
pool, mostly 9 Ball, and pool sharking.
I haven’t seen it before. It
brought back memories. Memories of the
Past Time Grill one block from the Courthouse in Marietta and of course the
game of pool, of the owners Neal and his wife, and Howard, the sour crippled
man who racked the balls. And a late
friend who gambled away his family’s grocery money for the week.
When we went to Past Time Grill we
were under 18 and it was an age requirement so we needed a note from our
parents. A classmate named Nancy wrote our permission notes. I wonder if Neal ever realized that all our
mothers had the same handwriting
In the movie one of the pool halls
frequently visited had a set of long narrow stairs to get to. I remember once in 1960, on Marietta High School’s
Senior Day, a bunch of us went to a pool hall on North Avenue in Atlanta, one
block from The Varsity Restaurant and It had an identical staircase. I think I vaguely remember somebody of high
school authority saw us leave and we had some explaining to do.
After we were married and had two
boys we bought a used regulation pool table which I think was a good investment
at the time. Then in time our boys moved
out and the pool table in he basement was used only to fold laundry so we put
it up for sale. There were no takers so
we put It up for free. There was one
young man who wanted it but taking it apart and moving it would take some expertise
which he did not have, and the young man couldn’t afford to pay for it. So we paid for it.
I am not completely pooless now. I have a computer game 3D POOL SHARK which
looks like real colored balls with the right color with the right balls,
applying the right English works, even the clicking sounds of balls hitting
each other sounds realistically. But no electronic
Howard to rack the balls for us.
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