Memories of Milwaukee with a Viking

 My uncle Bill taught me how to play pool when I was 22 years old in 1970.  I got hung up in playing pool and got pretty good at it.  I started playing pool at Sally’s and Greco’s in Milwaukee.  My whole family was involved in playing pool in Milwaukee during this time.

In 1976, my brother Gary bought Jimmy’s Lounge at 9^th Place and Lincoln and renamed it Gary’s Lounge.  He ran it until 1983 when my mom took over and renamed it Joyce’s Good Spirits.  In 1986, Mike Wheaton bought it and named it Mike’s Movin’ Inn. He owned it until 1992.  I tended bar there from 1978 to about 1992.

During this time, I played pool.  I was in 8 leagues a week.  There was a Couples League on Sundays that started at 4:30 in the afternoon and another couple’s league that started on Sundays at 7:30 p.m.  I went from one to the other.   On Monday was Women’s league.  On Tuesdays I played on two leagues: Women’s at 7:30 and Mixed League at midnight. Mixed League had teams of 5 people and had to have at least 2 men and at least 2 women.  Wednesdays was Women’s and then Mixed League and Thursday was another Women’s league.  Mixed League was more competitive because of the men on the teams.  I started used a Viking pool cue in the beginning and later switched to a McDermott cue.

Some of the places we played at were Sally’s, Asti’s on Lincoln, Penny’s on Lincoln, Metro Tap and Bambi’s.  El Matador on 6^th Street was the place to go to for nachos and all kinds of Mexican cuisine.

I won my first trophy at Greco’s on 6^th and Harrison in Milwaukee.  It was for Women’s League.  The trophy was a real big one, too.  I won trophies every year; many were for MVP-Most Valuable Player.

My mom Joyce played in the leagues too and won 40-50 trophies herself. 

I even ran the pool league for 4 years. I had to buy the pool league from the WASL-The Wisconsin Associated Sport League and then I bought the Metro Tap.  I took out the bar and made it all into living space and ran the league from my home.  After I stopped running the league, I stayed in the house for another 7 years.

All in all, I won about 200 trophies; the coolest was a 3^rd place trophy that was really ornate and was about 9 inches in diameter and had marble in it.  I donated all my trophies, some of the trophies to the kids’ leagues and some to the Boys and Girls Club. 

In those days playing pool cost $5 per person and with 5 team members, it cost $25 for the team each night.  The cost of beer went from a dollar to $1.25 and sodas went from 50 cents to 75 cents.  Pitchers of beer were $3.  I had to tune out the jukebox when I played.  You got 3 songs on the jukebox for a quarter or one song for a dime.

Do you remember Koz’s Mini Bowl at 7^th and Becher Street in Milwaukee?  We would play mini bowl (also called duck bowling) on Saturday afternoons.  We would have 12 people from one bar play against 12 people from another bar; the losers would pop for a 6 foot sub sandwich and sodas.  The lanes at Koz’s were about 12 feet long and the ball was hard, weighed between 2 and 4 pounds and didn’t have finger holes. 

We would also play duck bowling at Quackers in Theinsville, WI.

Along with pool and bowling, we played a lot of 3 ball, 9 ball, (pool games,) bar dice, liars’ dice, Texas Hold ‘Em, had cribbage tourneys and watched football on Sundays.

Playing in all the pool leagues was fun and exciting.  Anyone can win at any given time.  It was one of the best times of my life.

~ JoAnn K.

JoAnn K. started dialysis in May of 2010. Here she is pictured with:  Pam Thome, Social Worker; Kristen Bleichwehl, RN Charge Nurse (left), and Zulma Frias, Dialysis Technician.