Is This Forgotten Gadget The Key To Mastering Every Shot?
October 1, 2024
source: eBay
Can you still recall those Saturday nights in the bowels of a pool hall sometime during the seventies? Perhaps the room did have a jukebox playing songs by Fleetwood Mac or maybe even the Rolling Stones, while you wrote your chalk up preparing to play your turn. As you took your position for a shot there was more or less togetherness, the sound of the sneakers as they slid on the polished floor and the metallic jingle of the balls when a new game began. Back then, it was not a war; it was about having a good time, being with friends, and taking the time to clean the nature with equal manners as to wash your cloths. Another petty but essential gadget that user heavily relied on for care of the cue’s tip was the Tip Pik.
The Tip Pik, despite being small and having protruding spikes, has long been a part of any billiards player’s kit for decades. Originally used to address needs of players for high-quality cue tips, it was one of the innovations that can go a long way in one’s playing. As with the shine on your black leather soles before going out, so to was the tip of your cue all about finesse. The closer and slicker the cue tip was, the lesser chalk it retained and without that vital bite, manipulation of the cue ball was as guessing it.
But using the Tip Pik in hand for instance you could easily rub the leather making it to have a rough surface so that it would grip the chalk firmly as would be desirable. Only such a small tool could make your game better—and let’s face it, if you wanted to hit the corner shot, you could use all the help you can get.
As the result, people not only can enhance the effect of hitting the ball but also can realize the essence of billiards culture before ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Cue sports back then were not only for entertainment; they were an encounter of a different community. Pool halls were social places, where people, friends and strangers came to play, listen and learn. It’s probably why even if you were just a recreational player or participated in a cub league, your cue and how you cared for it was as much your persona as the way you played.
In a day and age in which parents are told to ensure their child’s development that their parents put a lot of effort into their toy photography, there was something serene about the maintenance of the gear. Players would stay idle around the table, adjusting their cues as they moved the Tip Piks, sandpaper and the chalk on them to ensure that the equipment was as sharp as their aim. I can’t but remember those days when preparation was as important as the game and the team actually looked like a team.
In hindsight, the Tip Pik embodies a new and different culture that was brought in as part of this age of cute and careful. Car owners, house owners, even billiard cue owners proudly cared for and preserved what they owned. As pool halls gained popularity in the middle of the twentieth century, so did the hope to accomplish mastery through hard work, talent and friendships forged through an event that could only be completed through time and careful precision.
It is impossible to watch the billiards popular culture of the 1960s and the 1970s and not smile. Perhaps you had a primary place you used to go to or you recall the excitement you had when making the perfect shot before friends. Perhaps you even have your Tip Pik somewhere in a drawer, a tiny memento, from the good old days when people were merely competing with each other in laughing and having fun?