THE POOL HALL

When I first entered the university back in the mid-60’s I had a freshman year sociology course and one of my text books was called “The Street Corner Society” by William Foote Whyte and published in 1943.  An interesting study of an Italian ghetto in the Boston area and its social structure.  Me being Italian (Sicilian Actually) and all and coming from an Italian enclave in the Detroit area got me reading this book right away.  It was like watching “This Is Your Life – with Ralph Edwards” on TV. Because lo and behold this book was describing my family, friends and social life pretty accurately.

The center of our little family revolved around a Pool Hall called “The Miss Cue” which was directly across the street from the Big Boy drive-n on Harper Ave. near Chalmers in Detroit. The Pool Hall was owned by Danny R. and bank rolled by his dad a noted member of the local “la cosa nostra” family. Danny drove a large black Lincoln Town Car, wore $1000 Italian shark skin suits, a diamond pinky ring and hand made Italian shoes. His close buddy and Manager of the place was Nick T. also a prominent family member and equally well dressed. The main cast of characters that were there on a daily basis were as follows:

- The two afore mentioned Danny and Nick,

- Novi, the heir apparent to “Black Bill’s” family,

- Anthony, an up and coming young attorney to help the family business,

- Mello, a brain damaged black man who was the house “boy”, and clean-up man,

- Frank, Mike and Villari a trio of local boys like me from St Anthony’s

- Vito, Bosco, Cheech and Tony the local gamblers,

- A cast from “The Godfather” who came to gamble, get their hair cut and play cards in back

- The usual groupies on occasion,

- And myself the family college boy & ‘hippie’ with a beard and long hair but I was related in some way to everyone in the joint, except maybe Mello.

The pool hall became our second home for most of us during the years 1964 – 1970. We grew up there. There was a definite hierarchy established in the place and we all knew our roles and our limits. The older guys, usually the fathers, uncles and older brothers of the guys I was a contemporary of, came in during the day and played cards, made food (there was a full kitchen in the back), watched sports on TV and bet on everything from who would win the baseball game to when a fly would land on his sandwich. Since it was a public business they had to cover all the windows, two of them, so they could gamble on through the night. On rare occasions a couple of cops would come in just to harass the “boys” and they would last about 5 minutes. There would be so much harassment coming from the customers that they would have to leave or be shot. I never saw anyone get it in the Pool Hall but I knew they would sooner or later. It became a “cop free zone” after a while and it was nice to know that the cops wouldn’t bother you in the Pool Hall.

Mello took more abuse than any human had a right to get. I asked Mello one time how he dyed his hair red and he told me with “Mercurochrome, cause it’s a medicine that keeps me smart and kills all the germs that can attack my brain”. He was grossly underpaid and overworked. One time Mello was cleaning up some fried chicken bones and such that the crew left and he was eating the scraps and leftovers since he was hungry. Novi saw him going through the garbage eating scraps and blew a gasket. He started screaming at Mello and ran over to hit him with a pool stick, Mello put up his arm to protect himself and Novi succeeded in breaking Mello’s arm. Everybody kind of scoffed at Novi for hitting Mello and someone grabbed Mello and took him to the Hospital, Novi just laughed.

I know these guys had wives and families but we never saw them, except at weddings and funerals. The other medium that reminds me of those times is the movie “GoodFella’s” by Martin Scorcese. He must have been from my neighborhood. Not Quite a Sociological Piece but a lot more realistic.

This pressure cooker of Italian egos and crime made an unusual mix for this time of transition. The world was heading headlong into the future and we were half in the past and half in today. The family organization that permeated our lives back then gave us a real good look at the world the way it really is. The mafia guys liked to talk to me because I was in reality one of them and a long hair. They could ask me about PSYCHEDELICS, free love and things like that and knew I wouldn’t tell their dads. We were peers as well as family and we trusted each other.

There were fights along the way but no one seemed to want to catch the wrath of the pool hall boys. Only the guys who were on an equal footing would dare to challenge them. There was one time when a very large football player from Notre Dame went cruising through the drive in and he picked on one of the younger brothers of my friends not knowing who he was. Word come to the pool hall across the street and that brought the whole group out to the sidewalk in front of the drive in and the smallest one named Anthony went up to big George and smacked him upside his head and told him he should pick on someone his own size like him. George came up out of his seat and stopped quite suddenly when he noticed all the guys in suits standing behind him from across the street. He tucked his tale and hung his head and got the hell out of there fast. George later played for the Chicago Bears.

Novi later on got his come-up-ance when he started dating a beautiful black girl. His family went nuts when he told them he wanted to marry her. He was disinherited and did not take the reins from his dad. I told him I thought she was great and don’t let your family tell you what to do.

Many lessons learned and some in vain, this was the real “Street Corner Society” we were living it. If you really want to know more read “The Street Corner Society” but better than that get “GoodFellas” and watch it on your DVD. By the way I got a “B” in the class but I passed the street test.