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© Copyright 2000, Jim Loy
Early last year, I read email saying that someone had a billiard (carom) table for sale. I really wanted a billiard table, it was the dream of my life, but I didn't have a place for it. I thought that someday I might have a bigger place, and I could store my billiard table until then. A friend of mine offered to set it up in his barn, which he was planning to remodel. He was going to put a pool table in there, and there was room for my billiard table as well. We could store the table or tables until he finished building. Great. My dream would come true.
I contacted the person with the billiard table, and he had already sold it. I then received email saying that an Elks Club in Tacoma (if I remember correctly) had a table for sale. I phoned them, and the guy said that they had sold their tables, but that he heard that the Elks Club in Ashland Oregon had a table for sale. A friend of mine, with a business of his own, said that he has things shipped from California, and he could have a truck stop in Ashland Oregon, and pick up my table. I called the Elks Club in Ashland, and agreed to buy the table for $500, much less than the table was worth. I sent them a check for $500. This was in July, 1999.
It turned out that it might cost a lot of money to have a truck stop in Ashland, and that deal fell through. Two of my pool league teammates planned to borrow a trailer and drive to Ashland. Then one of them was arrested for drunk driving, and lost his driver's licence, and had to attend AA meetings all the time. So that deal fell through. A year went by. I wanted my table. I suggested that I just hire some shipping company, and pay the freight. My friends said that eventually, they would help me go get it. Then I was hospitalized with a blood clot in my lung. And I was even more dependent upon my friends for this project. Then they got a wild hair and decided to go get my table.
I called the Ashland Elks Club. Nobody knew anything about it. They had no table. Then I received a phone call. They had had four tables, and they accidentally sold five of them. More than one person was selling the tables, it would seem. They returned my money.
I have no billiard table.