Bars, Billiards, Bowling and Dates

Motzei shabbos, after my friend's ufruf, a few of us wanted to go to a billiards hall to shoot some pool with him, just to hang out for the night.

Another friend didn't want to go. He didn't feel it was an appropriate place to go to. Good yeshiva boys just don't go to billard halls.

I first went to a billiards place and felt the same way, a little guilty. Face it, its a place where people smoke and drink. Its low lit. Its far from a museum. Billiards have a reputation, like bars, to be a low class, low life, place.

Things have changed. In NY you can't smoke inside bars or billiard halls. Every time I've gone to shoot pool some couple has been there on a (n obviously shidduch) date.

Still, the stigma remains.

Billiards are no differnet than bowling. Some think of bowling as a low class event too. But pool takes more skill, was more smoke filled, and had a lot more alcohol, to the point that some places only allowed you in once you were over 18. People grow up bowling, so its normal to them. Rarely does someone grow up playing pool. So the feel its wrong.

But they're really the same thing.