Friday with Sue

When I left the house yesterday afternoon carrying my two-piece not custom made pool cue in my Action carrying case, accompanying my daughter Susan to her car, I was hoping the neighbor next door who was headed for his Jeep carrying an armful of shirts would spot me carrying my not custom made two-piece pool cue in my Action carrying case and wave and ask me the question I was dying to be asked: "You play pool?" He didn't notice, and therefore didn't ask.

In the late 60s when I met the Piermont brothers Dave and Dennis in the city we would go out drinking. We were of legal age then, which then in New York was 18. We went into a bar on 57th Street and 9th Avenue, on the corner, The Horse's Tail, whose entrance was lit by a blinking neon sign that showed a horse's tail swishing back and forth. Nowadays this would be called a "dive bar" but we weren't picky.

That I remember, since we only went there once, it was a round, or oval bar. When we entered at what would be considered an early hour, there were no other customers. We weren't "proofed" and ordered what we then were drinking, Dennis a Tanqueray and tonic, myself, maybe a beer, maybe a Dewar's, and Dave, something with Seagrams Seven. I'm really not sure. The bartender made a face on seeing us, but listened to the orders and filled them. Dennis, the one most eager to make small talk with the bartender, noticed an array of bowling trophies by the cash register and asked the bartender, "Do you bowl?"

Maybe this was a question he had been asked many times before, maybe not at all, but he had a ready answer. He sucked his teeth, slowly wiped his hands on his apron and told us, "I bowl like old people fuck. Not well and not often." Clearly the trophies weren't his.

This was great. He was at least talking to us, and obviously I never forgot his eloquence. So, if my neighbor were to ask me if I played pool I was ready to smile and give him the same answer that the bartender gave us over 50 years ago. I would of course substitute "play pool" for "bowl."

And since life is not over, maybe someone will still ask me if I play pool when they see me carrying my two-piece not custom made pool cue in my Action carrying case. And maybe I'll feel safe to give them the answer I've been dying to give. I'll be ready. 

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