My Pool Table Skills

I have to fact check with my brother at what age he started shooting pool in the back of our cousin’s bar room. At the corner of St. Anthony St. and Claiborne Ave. in New Orleans was a bar room (Fat’s Bar) owned by a cousin of my Grandfather Cates. I was spending my time at other parts unknown. To this day, Carl can run circles around me on a pool table even though I had a pool tournament trophy on my living room shelf until Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

FAT'S BAR on Claiborne Ave. was owned by a cousin on my Grandpa Cates' side. The pool tables were in the back room, not in the front in the bar. Fats (our cousin) used to let my brother Carl shoot pool in the back beginning when Carl was 4 yrs old. He says that is how old he was. pic.twitter.com/fHb0EGGimK

— Gazette (@Ferd3desk) July 25, 2025