a new hobby
Memories from my childhood are bolstered by pool.
Mostly from my grandfather’s house in Longport, New Jersey. When it grew dark on a summer night, too late to play outside by the bay, we would ignore the sticks stacked neatly on the wall and throw the balls skee-ball style to see who could get the eight ball in the pocket in one shot.
My dad used to take us with him to John Allan’s on Fifth Avenue so he could get his hair cut. We’d observe, quietly as we could, as financiers and businessmen would break the perfect triangle into the chaos that eventually became the gameplay. The lineup. The formation. It made no sense me; the physics of it all.
Pool knows no age. Eventually, you learn that while the cool kids had pool tables in their basement, cooler kids could actually play.
Want to know if that place is a vibe? See if it has a table. Friends and strangers play together, names scribbled in chalk, eager to get up and show off how good they are at hitting a ball with a stick. It’s an intimidating but welcoming community. Pool takes focus, patience, two skills that are tough to work on at the bar. Others might disagree, but to me, it’s a damn challenge. I never tried hard enough to get any good at pool. Or beer pong. Or any of those games that gets people talking about you at a party.
It’s admirable, though, to focus on something so much with a goal of improvement. A dance teacher I had for hip-hop used to say practice makes progress. He didn’t like to pretend any of us would ever be perfect at his choreography. Good on him, he knew his audience of pre-pubescent elementary schoolers would probably never become perfect at hip-hop. But the sentiment stands. We’ll never be perfect at anything, really. How could we be?
I’m not any good at pool. I can hold the stick, I can sneak by in doubles. But I know I’ll get better. I’ve come a long way from picking up the ball and chucking it against the edge of the table as hard as I could, understanding sometimes you need more than strength to move forward. Practice makes progress.
Some of my favorite pool tables I’ve visited recently:
Station Bar & Curio, Woodstock NY
The Drift, Brooklyn NY
Circle W, Palenville NY
Welcome to the Johnsons, New York NY
