Episode 28 – Sinking the Cue Ball in the Bucket.
Not knowing if and when Jack would be stopping in next, I drove to Sixth Avenue, while Rose was taking a morning shower. I returned from Pao’s donut shop with a toasted coconut cake donut for Rose and an apple fritter for myself as well as a couple extras just in case our favorite visitor stopped in for a chat. I stopped for some outstanding coffee as well.
I was joined almost as soon as my ignition was turned off by our friend and sometimes impossible benefactor, Jack. As we entered my house Rose was just climbing the stairs from our bedroom suite. It’s not that suite, but it’s comfy.
The pastries and coffee were soon on the table along with napkins, milk, sugar, and a few other add ins. Rose sat with her back to Vashon Island, while I sat at the head and Jack had the view of Rose, Puget Sound and Vashon and Maury Islands.
I asked Jack how the new pool hall was going. He started complaining about the women taking over and wanting to do this and do that and then caught himself in mid-paragraph, realizing that Rose was one of the women taking over the gaming establishment. Jack caught himself and lowered his head a bit and apologized to Rose, who simply nodded and let him off the hook. He began again, “The women are coming up with some good ideas and I think we’re probably looking at a profit for all three of the pool hall owners.”
We sat in silence nodding and waiting for a big “But!” It never happened. Rose picked up the conversation with an interesting update. I looked at Rose, Rose looked at me and then Jack looked at Rose.
Rose frowned. “I think there is one problem we haven’t been aware of.” Jack looked at me and I looked back at Rose. I asked simply “What is the hang up?” Rose continued, “Apparently Mean Bill isn’t as mean as we thought. A regular customer back from prison, could be a pain in our side. He hasn’t been disrupting the daily traffic or the early night business, but he and his wife or girlfriend get belligerent late in the evening and apparently Mean Bill hasn’t done anything to stop it or counter it.
We tossed a few ideas around and finally came down to two possible solutions. We thought out of prison or jail, probably meant reporting to reviewers of their behavior and their demeanor like raising a ruckus or being arrested for being drunk and obnoxious. As a last resort we could hire night guards, but that costs money. Again, Rose had a great idea. She said, “The Pacific Northwest has plenty of ex-athletes from both our higher educational establishments and our professional sports teams. We’ve got big body players all over the Puget Sound area. Why don’t we have a few special nights where we pay these players to join us . . . get their pictures taken with our customers and signed autographs? We can warn them about drunks and fools just to prepare them.” We all agreed that solution had some promise. Jack said, “I’ll talk to Mean Bill and light a fire under him as well. He should have already taken care of something like this.”
Rose had better content to share, “Your wife Edna read something in the Seattle Times about people doing a neighborhood walk and taking a plastic bucket with them as part of the movement to “Be the change you want to see.” People take their buckets with them and pick up trash and poop bags and put them in the buckets. Back home the contents go in the trash or the soil depending upon what they pick up. It improves the look of the neighborhoods and gives people pride.”
Jack gave a harrumph and said, “What good does that do us?” Rose smiled and said, “Let’s move on. Edna talked to Katy, Mean Bill’s wife, who saw profit from the clean up and additional visitors. She suggests selling the buckets and including a glass of beer or a cola. Each bucket will have our pool hall name, phone number, and address stenciled on it. We’ll get free publicity from the clean up walking crews, and make a profit with each sale as well. In addition, we plan to kick it off with Ed Taylor performing. He said he would do it for free, but I think we could talk him into taking a buck or two. He suggested a concert name, Poop Buckets at the Pool Hall, but we could come up with something a little better.”
With a look of almost disbelief, Jack said, “It looks like . . . well, actually . . . I think it sounds like a winner . . . all the way around . . even with Poop Buckets at the Pool Hall.”
One night Mean Bill lit up the biggest cigar he could find, put on a scowl, and confronted Dirty Jake and Belinda. Like many problems, just addressing them makes them disappear. Dirty Jake, an ex-inmate felt like a loser and was taking out his feelings on everyone else. Belinda had been praying for help. Jake is now washing dishes for our little pool hall and Belinda wants to sell poop buckets on the streets and in the parks.
Well, as Ed Taylor would say, “It’s complicated.”
Listen to Ed Taylor, Smooth Jazz Star – youtube.com/watch?v=3TUjEFL5pyo
c. 2023 Don and Peg Doman
Good story and excellent smooth jazz.