It probably seems odd that a person would get a little sentimental over a pool table. But that's what's happening to me right now.

 A little background: the recent torrential rains caused some water to gush up into the basement of my Mom's house in Des Moines, Iowa. This is the house I grew up in. It really freaked her out and now she wants to get rid of everything in the basement so if it ever happens again, there will be literaly nothing down there to get wet.

 This includes a pool table. It's a standard looking pool table. Probably made in the 1960's with a metal frame, a green velet top and plastic pocket liners that make a neat clicking noise when you hit the ball "just right". The pool table is a family gem. My great-grandfather played on that table, as did my grandfather and grandmother and my mother. My grandfather taught me how to play on that pool table with a pool stick he custom made by cutting a normal sized pool cue in half, then filling the end with melted lead to provide a shorter stick, perfect size for a kid, with just enough weight to allow me to shoot and make shots.

 I spent a lot of hours around that pool table. My grandfather started to teach me how to play when I was about four years old. I remember having to stand on chairs to make shots. It took me YEARS before I finally could beat my Grandfather. He never took it easy on me. He played me to the best of his abilitiy until I could beat him using the best of my ability. That night my victory howl could have been heard in the Phillipines. I think I was nine years old before I finally beat him. The following years it was a constant battle back and forth between him and me. There was a 55 year age difference between me and my grandfather. We had few things in common. That pool table was one of them.

 So now, years later, my mom tells me that either I have to take the pool table or she is going to get rid of it. I don't know that I have room for it in my house. I suppose I could set it up in the garage, but other than that I don't know. However, the idea of that pool table leaving our family just doesn't seem acceptable. So now I face a decision of what to do and how to do it. I talked on the phone with my Mom today and told her how I feel about it. But she isn't budging. She wants it gone. I just don't think I can part with it.

 Quote Of The Day: "There are 350 varities of shark, not counting loan and pool." L.M. Boyd

 This Day In History: The first commercial color TV program was transmitted by CBS from New York to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston and Washington DC on this date, June 25th 1951.

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