By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Like clockwork every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, the four men show up carrying their pool cues in cases.
The seasoned pool sharks walk past the bingo game being called on the first floor of the Wood County Senior Center to the pool table on the second floor balcony.
The men have been playing pool together for years – some of them for the last 20 years.
The most senior player is Dean Augenstein, at 92. The baby of the competitors is Stu Stearns at 84. And in the middle are Bill Titus, 92, and Skip Oman, 89.
“I’m the kid of the group,” Stearns said.
“The snot-nosed kid,” Oman returned with a grin.
“This gives us something to do in the winter time. It gets us out,” Stearns said.
Stearns readily admits that the pool games are more than just a chance to practice their skills at billiards.
“There’s a social aspect,” he said.
As they greet each other around the pool table, and open their cue cases, the men engage in a little trash talk before the first break of the balls.
“We like to win,” Stearns said. “But I don’t know how serious we are.”
There’s no Minnesota Fats here, just four Bowling Green seniors who enjoy the game and each others’ company.
The men grew up in a time when practically every town had at least one pool hall.
Oman, who served in the Air Force then worked as an engineer for Poggemeyer Design Group, played pool often as a kid growing up in Bowling Green. After school and during the summer, he and his buddies could be found at Barney’s Pool Room which was located across North Main Street from the Clazel movie theater.
“We used to play a lot of pool in there,” Oman said.
As he chalked up his cue stick, Titus said he was not able to play pool much in his youth.
“He could, as long as his dad didn’t catch him,” one of his fellow pool sharks said.
Stearns, who taught biology and coached at Bowling Green High School, had the same issue as a young boy – since some parents felt their children could be corrupted hanging out in pool halls.
“I never played much until I came up here,” said Stearns, who grew up in Fostoria. “My mother wouldn’t let me in the pool hall.”
Augenstein, who owned Dean’s Alignment business, dropped out of high school to join the Army during World War II. He finished up school when he returned from war, and was able to sneak in a pool game here and there.
“I’ve been playing for a long time,” Augenstein said.
The men play 8-ball and switch partners at the end of each game. And while friendly, the men show little respect for their elders.
“You’re getting that shot down pretty good,” Stearns joked after one particularly bad shot made by his competition.
But they also show little reverence for their own skills.
“Oh, that was ugly,” Augenstein said after missing his shot.
They talk to the balls, coaxing them to drop into pockets – but often to no avail.
“Close, but no banana,” Oman said after the ball refused to cooperate.
The men’s colorful language has at times been the source of complaints from the more refined bingo players one floor below the pool balcony.
“We’ve been asked to kind of watch it sometimes,” Stearns admitted.
But he explained that in some cases, foul language is simply unavoidable.
“Sometimes if you have a really bad shot, you might say something you shouldn’t,” Stearns said.
Oman admitted to using some less than pristine language at times.
“I’ve been known to slip,” he said.
Titus confessed to nothing, though he added he has been made aware about concerns from the bingo crowd about the “rowdy” behavior of the pool sharks. “That’s what I hear,” he said with a smile.
The men do make wagers on their games – but just a quarter a game.
“On a really bad day, you might lose 50 to 75 cents,” Stearns said. “On a really good day, you might make 50 to 75 cents.”
The wagers may be low, but the competitive spirit is high.
“This is going to get expensive,” Titus said after missing a shot.
“We play a quarter a game. You’d swear it was $1,000 a shot,” Oman said.
The pool sharks just can’t bring themselves to switch over to bingo.
“Bingo has never been my game,” Oman said.
If it weren’t for regular pool games, who knows what kind of mischief these men would be up to, he added.
“It’s a good pastime, my golly,” Titus agreed.
“It keeps me out of a lot of trouble,” Oman said. Otherwise, “we’d chase women, of course – though we haven’t caught any.”
