It was time to leave after another\nfruitful hour at the Sea Star on Free Pool Sunday: I bartered one of\nmy books for a porter; Gary regaled me with yet another fantastic\nstory from his boat racing days; I wrote 300 words on my kink Western\nwhile a decidedly non-kink Western starring Glenn Ford played on\ntelevision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was almost out the door when Rick\nstopped his pool game and hurried over. He’s an unforgettable\nfixture on Sundays with his maniacal laughs (on good or bad shots)\nthat carry to California. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rick asked if I read nonfiction. I said\nI did. He asked if I would examine a letter he had written to various\nlocal organizations and authorities demanding a retraction of his\nbanishment from the senior center. In the preceding months, I’d\noverhead him discuss the banishment, its alleged unfairness,\npettiness and illegality, and possible courses of action for his\nreinstatement of playing pool at the center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The precise reason for his banishment\nhad not come up, or at least I never heard anything about it. I did\nwant to know, of course. What does it take to get banished from\nplaying pool at a senior center? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said I would help. I began right\nthere, standing near the bar, with Glenn Ford blasting away, and\nperused the two-page letter, while Rick returned to his game. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He needed a crisper opening, a brief\nnarrative of the dispute, some citations of the center’s bylaws he\nclaimed were violated, and perhaps a softer tone, more of an\ninvitation for the center to do the right thing, rather than\nberating. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Does berating people ever inspire them\nto do the right thing? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stuffed the letter into my coat\npacket and told Rick I would edit it, make some comments and\nsuggestions, and return it next week at Free Pool Sunday. He was of\ncourse free to reject all or some of them and it wouldn’t bother me\nin the least. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rick thanked me profusely, drained a\nlong shot, cackled, and I walked out into an overcast afternoon,\ndetermined to help Rick communicate better and perhaps win the day.\nNo man should be denied the pleasure of playing pool at a senior\ncenter without proper due process. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We never discussed a price, but I knew\na free beer was coming. Barter. Barter is always best in OTA country.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was time to leave after another fruitful hour at the Sea Star on Free Pool Sunday: I bartered one of my books for a porter; Gary regaled me with yet another fantastic story from his boat racing days; I wrote 300 words on my kink Western while a decidedly non-kink Western starring Glenn Ford […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-tavern-age","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5203"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5206,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5203\/revisions\/5206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}