How about sharing some Elmer PhD (pronounced Fudd) stories

[cpm9ball]

Okay, so a few of us had a little fun with the academic achievements at the expense of another member. I hope he realizes that we sometimes try to make light of some of our topics of discussion just to ease the tension.

 

The recent thread that brought the subject of academic achievements to the fore made me think of a (somewhat) humorous incident that occurred in 1963. So, if any of you have an academic-related anecdote or story to share with us, please "chime in".

 

Here is mine..............

 

It was during my junior year of high school in 1963. Mr. Graves was hired as the new Assistant Principal, and he demanded that everyone call him Dr. Graves because he had a PhD in education. I thought to myself, "Who is this guy? This isn't a hospital!"

 

I was skipping school one day and was at the local poolroom gambling. This is something that I did quite often when I had the chance to make some money. I missed 42 days during my junior year. That particular day, I was playing an older man straight pool for $10 a point.

 

For those of you who don't know how to play straight pool, it is generally played to 125 or 150 points, and you earn one point for every ball you pocket. You use a 15-ball rack, and you can shoot at any ball. You leave the 15th ball on the table as a "break shot" and rack the remaining 14 balls. You continue shooting until you miss. Then, it is your opponent's turn. It was very rare that my opponents ever got a chance to shoot. Straight pool was the first game I learned to play, and by the time I was 13, I could "run" 100+ balls all of the time.

 

In those days it was common to keep track of what one player owed to another on the "string" or a chalkboard. Gambling was common in the poolrooms in our area, but it was still illegal in the eyes of the law. Anyway, Dr. Graves, PhD, strolled into the poolroom as I was playing the older man, and advised me that I was in alot of trouble. He said that we had to return to school, but I told him he would have to wait until my opponent wanted to quit. You see, in those days, pool was still somewhat of a "gentleman's game". You never quit in the middle of a match when you were winning, and the older man had already lost quite a bit of money to me. Of course, I hadn't been paid yet.

 

So, Dr. Graves sat patiently as I finished playing. I "ran out", 150 points, in what would be the final game of our match. The older man quit, but I think it was more because of the fact that he didn't want to become involved with the school or the law. He paid me the $4200 that he owed, and I had a little "private chuckle" because I just earned in 4 hours what "Doctor" Graves made in 3 months as an Assistant Principal.

 

Chris