Leaving the Post Office area, we go
through a big set of doors leading off to the left. We
go through these doors into another large room. Off to
the right, we see another room separated by a railing
from the room we are in. This is the Pool Hall and it is
filled with pool tables. We’ll come back to that room.
Straight ahead of us and just outside the Pool Hall,
toward the middle of the room, there was a counter and
sort of an office area. That is where Mr. Brownie Trent
worked. I think that Mr. Trent was the manager of the
YMCA but I am not sure. He seemed to be pretty much in
charge of things in the Pool Hall area.
Just as we had come into the room, before the pool
area, there were several items. If I remember correctly,
on the left side was a real phone booth with a real
door. I’m not sure but I think that there might have
been some pinball machines close to the phone
booth. At different times there were also two coin
operated game machines that I always played when I got
to go to the Hall. I would love to know just how many
quarters I put into these machines. One was a little
shooting gallery with a Mauser pistol on it. After you
put in your quarter, you could shoot the pistol. The
more times you hit the targets the more you could shoot.
Back in those days, I fancied myself quite a shot and
played the game many times.
The other game was similar but it was in two parts.
The target was a bear that went in a circle. The second
part was the rifle and it was located about 10 or 15
feet away from the target. You put in your quarter,
picked up the rifle and tried to shoot the bear as he
went around the circle. The bear had photo cells on it
and the rifle shot out a light beam. When he was hit the
bear, reared up, roared and went back the other way. It
was serious fun and took many, many of my quarters.
Off to the left there was another
big room. I don’t know what it was originally for, but
when I was young, it served as a place to display the
many trophies of Pacolet Mills sports teams through the
years. There was a huge glass trophy case just for the
town’s baseball mementos. No trip to the movie to
see Bob Steele or Ken Maynard was complete without
stopping by to look at the yellowed baseballs, the
silver trophies and. the photographs. In
retrospect, the photographs made the most
impression. There was picture after picture
showing Pacolet’s team from the past. It was a
pictorial record of the evolution of baseball
uniforms. But more than this, they showed stern
faced, proud men who had succeeded. Some faces I
knew only from legendary reputation of their skill as
base players. However, three of them, I knew
personally. They were my uncles Monroe and Lee
"Bo" Teaster and Jesse “Toby” Campbell.
The Pacolet Mills Team of 1927
Leaving the trophy room, let’s
walk back over to the Pool Hall. We see that it is a
very large room that holds many large pool tables. Each
table is covered with green felt and has a light
suspended over it. Along the walls there are several
long racks that hold pool cues. Several games of pool
are being played and pool was a very popular for many
men. The Pool Room was off limits to children when I was
young and I don’t believe that I ever went passed the
railing. I know that I never played a game of pool.
