No fighting, no gambling: What’s happened to the old pool halls?

Russell’s sounds like a pool hall, all right. It just doesn’t look like one. At least not the kind of pool hall some people might remember if they close their eyes and think about it.

There is the sound of balls clinking and dropping into pockets. There are the usual jokes and small-time trash talk that has been associated with pool halls since the beginning of time.

But where are the high-back benches where a guy could get a shoeshine and sip on a bottle of suds while watching money change hands when a 9-ball drops?

Where is the old man? You know, the old man who runs the place. The old man who looks older than time. Who curses like a sailor standing a midwatch. Who never fails to get under your skin over your playing ability, your girlfriend, your wife.

And where is the guy? You know the guy. The guy you walk into a pool hall to see play. The guy who was passing through town but stopped long enough to hustle a few local yokels out of their pay checks.

Russell’s has none of that. The Bangor pool hall formerly known as Miami North has (gasp) carpet. It is clean. It has courteous employees. It has clean pool tables and there are no cigarettes burning on the rails while players takes shots because there is NO SMOKING.

There is more to this place. It has video games, movie theaters and CD players blaring Van Halen. It has a nice, clean bar (smoking allowed) with TVs showing college football games.

The grizzled agitator of old has become 25-year-old Chad Bazinet. He is a pool manager at Russell’s. Bazinet is a clean-cut young man who knows that today’s pool hall is not your father’s Oldsmobile.

“I know what you’re talking about. I’ve seen them, but that’s not the business anymore,” Bazinet said.

Galen Clukey has seen them, too. Clukey is retired. He lives in Dexter and comes to Bangor regularly to play in 9-ball tournaments at Russell’s. He also plays at the Brewer Eagles Club. Clukey remembers the old pool halls.

“Oh yeah, I guess,” he said with a laugh. “That’s what there was in my day. The transition is unreal. I used to hustle in pool halls.”

But the days of the hustler are virtually over. Bazinet said that identifying those guys is part of his job.

“I know all the good players. I know all the names. The way of the hustler, it’s more an up-front hustler. The deceit is gone. The traditional hustler, where you walk in and nobody knows you and you get money games, those days are over,” Bazinet said.

Nine-ball tournaments, such as those held at Russell’s, are part of the reason. People can enter the tournaments for a fee and know the talent level they are playing against will be close to their own, or near their handicap.

And the type of people who play in the tournaments has changed. Bazinet pointed out that there were a couple of self-made millionaires playing in the tourney.

Bankers, lawyers and local businessmen now play in the tourneys and are serious players, pointed out Jerry Jarrell, a local banker who along with Bazinet manages the tournaments.

“The way the game has evolved, it’s now almost exclusively tournaments. I guess with any sport you’re always going to have a few bad apples. The bad apples that you would turn over [at Russell’s] that we play would be few and far between,” Jarrell said.

And what does a self-described former hustler such as Clukey -“They hated to see me coming.” – think about the spit and polish, the smoke-free environment, the people being (ugh) polite, the lack of fights, gambling, drinking and cursing?

“We have some real good competition. We’ve got some good players here. People get along. It’s good,” Clukey said.

Yeah, even 20-year-old Michael Proudfoot who lives in Carmel and works at a Hermon grocery store and has the gumption to wear a New York Yankees ball cap. He also shoots some pretty good stick.

“I’m probably not very popular [because of the ball cap],” Proudfoot laughed.

Civility and a Yankees cap in Red Sox country. What have pool halls come to?

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net