We ended/began the year with a somewhat major addition to our house: we got a pool table for the basement. And not just any pool table... it actually used to be MINE!
No one could remember specific dates, but when I was in grade school, or perhaps Jr. High, my dad one a pool table in a drawing at a sporting goods store (B & B Sporting Goods - remember this for later). We used to have it in our den, before the wall was knocked out and it was made into one big living room. It isn't a slate table, but is apparently a pretty well made wooden table because even though it is probably close to forty years old it is still in really good shape (and pretty darn level). Anyway, they moved the table out of the house when they knocked the wall out, which was just before my sister graduated from high school (1976). No one seems to have any idea what happened to it between then, and probably around 1981 or 82, when my sister and her husband took it to their house in Minnesota. They had it until probably around 1993 or 94, when they gave it to my cousin (whose husband is married to my sisters ex-husband). They said they have had it for 18 years - and apparently took very good care of it.
So how did I end up with it? Well, since we have this huge room in our basement that we don't use for anything, it occurred to me one day that it would be nice to have a pool table again. So I put on facebook that if anyone knew of anyone that was wanting to get rid of a pool table, I might be interested. I expected maybe someone from Fort Wayne might know of someone who wanted to unload one. But I got a message from my cousin saying they had this pool table in their basement that they wanted to get rid of, and she thought it used to belong to my parents! I have to say, I was pretty ecstatic. I'm not all that into pool, but I am really into vintage/antique-type stuff anymore for some reason. So this pool table means quite a bit to me.
See, the story goes, when my parents had this pool table, the deal was always supposed to be that my sister would get the piano when she got her own home, and I would get the pool table. I remember when my sister also took the pool table it was because I didn't have a house where one would fit. I also thought I remember her asking me if I minded if they sold it at one point. I didn't care, because, again, I still didn't have a place for it. Jane and I thought they sold it at a garage sale so we thought it was just long gone and I really never gave it another thought. That's why I was so surprised when my cousin contacted me on Facebook. Pretty wild.
Another interesting little side note... As I said earlier, my dad won it at a place called B & B Sporting Goods in Princeton, IL (or something like that). When we moved it home the other day we had to rent a moving truck to haul it, and the place we rented the truck from was called... B & B Mini Storage in Peru, IL!!! How crazy is that?!
So, we went to my parents house last Friday, picked up the Budget rental truck on Saturday and went and got the table at my cousins, then drove home on Sunday and put it down in the basement. Drew and I even played a couple games on it after unloading it.
We went with a Budget truck because they seemed to be the only ones who rented with unlimited mileage. And we had to get it in Peru because they were supposedly the only ones that still had a 10' truck available when we got around to renting on the internet. However, they called the day before and asked if we minded taking a 16' truck instead (for the same price). Apparently they don't like to let their 10' trucks go one-way. So we drove from Peru to Brimfield and back to my parents' in Buda. That took $49 worth of gas. Then on New Years Day when we came home there were something like 30-40 mph winds, so I was NOT looking forward to driving this mostly-empty box truck in that wind. However it was out of the west, so it was at our back almost the entire way home. We not only made really good time (5 1/2 hours, with a 20-minute stop for lunch), but it also helped a ton with the gas mileage. We got 12 mpg. I put in 25 gallons when we got back home (for $85). So, the truck cost $237, and gas cost $134; however we made $200 while back home... So in the end it costs us $171 to get my old pool table back. And since we didn't go to Nashville for New Year's Eve like we were planning to... we were way ahead.
So happy new year to me. Peace out; and in.
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