Talking to my brothers while on vacation, I was reminded of some of the various things that spent time in the basement of our house. Dad was always bringing things home, but instead of kittens or puppies, it was usually cast off items from the hospital he worked at.
One day we became the proud new owners of a used bumper pool table. I thought at first it was just a small pool table, but turns out it had all these mushroom like bumper things that made the game of pool impossible. I can't tell you how many shots would bounce out of the hole and back onto the table. We were later informed by my dad that the table's previous location was the psych ward. We were fascinated. "This table has been around crazy people!" we all would say. "Wow, how many crazies play pool?" we wondered aloud. Looking back, I believe that if you want to help someone regain their sanity, letting them play bumper pool is probably a bad idea.
The insane bumper table was later replaced by a regulation sized pool table. We were so excited. A real table, it was going to be awesome. These thoughts of joy were soon lost when we actually started to play pool. The slate was actually a piece of warped plywood, and after you the break, all of the balls would come to a rest against the same rail. It was a little like putt putt pool. Also hampering our efforts was the fact that the table took up 90% of the room, ensuring that the cue stick would always hit the wall on your backswing. But, we made the best of the situation.
Soon joining the warped pool table was a dental chair. Yes, a dental chair. The thing was huge, and weighed about 600 pounds. We recently asked my dad his reasoning behind bringing it home, and even he couldn't offer an acceptable explanation. We would sit in it, go up, go down, pretend to give each other root canals... it really wasn't as fun as it sounds. It stayed there until we moved to Florida. We asked my dad what he ultimately did with it. He said that he sold for about 100 bucks. We asked who he sold it to, and he said, "I don't know, some guy that wanted a dentist chair in his basement."
