Anybody Need Some Chalk?

I walked into Sophie's Friday night and was stoked to see the table had been recovered. Now, I appreciate an old beat-up bar table. I love seeing how and where the cloth has worn through. We've all played on tables that have been neglected for years. But Sophie's table had been in serious need of repair for months. Because there was one rail (just to the left of where you place the cue ball when breaking) that had come loose. So loose, in fact, that if you slammed the cue ball straight into it you'd barely reach the opposite cushion on the rebound. It was such a nuisance that I would inform visiting teams about it before our matches. Thankfully, the rail was tightened and is springy as can be. Only problem now is, somebody stole the regular 2.25" cue ball. So all weekend we were playing with a grotesquely oversized cue ball that the bar keeps as a spare. And it wasn't even white. It was almost yellowish, with a slight hint of translucency to it. Nasty to look at, nasty when trying to get any kind of draw. But I digress.

My teammate Freddy was bragging about being the first to "de-virginize" the table. And I was talking to Kenny, the bartender, who had watched the pool table repair folks throughout the whole process. He mentioned a huge bag of chalk that had been thrown away, apparently all the chalk cubes that had fallen down to the bed of the table through the pockets. The image of a big bag of chalk instantly captivated my mind's eye. I asked him what they did with it. He said they threw it away, nodding toward the trash in the back. So I enlisted Freddy's help and we started digging through the trash. Fortunately it had only been a few hours, so it wasn't at the bottom of the trash. Lo and behold, the bounty. I couldn't determine if it was six months of chalk or if it was more like several years. Upon closer examination, I've decided it's easily more chalk than has accumulated since the last time they worked on the table. Some cubes were worn down completely, but others were like new. I counted and there are 156 pieces. Actually, there were over 160 because I left five or so at Sophie's but took the rest home. I'll take plenty more back to Sophie's. But I also plan to take a lot of it over to Pitt Street, because the chalk situation there is always dire. Also in the bag of chalk were cloth scraps and a lot of green cloth dust, one penny and one pistachio (uneaten).