Jaybird,
I don't dispute anything you said, but I'm glad you clarified your statement about Hitchcock, by saying "you never saw" any roadman beat him.
Chester Truelove, is still around to recall, that when I first went to OC, I beat Herman (sometimes giving weight), and Hitchcock at snooker, 9-ball, and one pocket, over several different plays.
The only time I got beat in OC, or Tulsa, (in well over a dozen trips there) was on a bar box against Weldon Rogers, I didn't watch my drink close enough...I gave him the 6, his one handed to my two..He might have won on the square anyway, but somebody made REAL sure he did...(I had double vision, and threw up for two days)
That time, I got broke, and hocked my Balabushka to Chester, for $150, and left town, one eying it down the road.
I came back a few weeks later...pumped to the gills, with my good bud, Billy Dan Rodgers... Weldon was gone, but BD beat Calvin (LB) and I got to Hitch again. Also one of the trips up there, I had a two day session with Bakersfield Bobby (also still alive and well)...we broke dead even on a tough bar box. I played other games besides 1P in those days, ...I used to stay with Herman and his wife, during later trips to OC...We must have just missed each other. (this was 64'-'69, or so)
Hey, I can see how some guy's might get hooked on the "brag"...this is fun...(specially if its verifiable).
PS..You remember we talked about it one time, I leased the other Pool room in Fairborn Oh, in 1956-57, for about a year. (just a little before your time, I believe you said)...I knew Winkler, Coffee, Valley St. Red, and all those guys. Got along great with all of them.
And I know you didn't expound on this but just for grins, I agree, Dayton could be rough in spots, thats true. But, bottom line...even the Mafia didn't mess with Texas too much, in those days...More crazy tush-hog's, in Dallas and Houston per square mile, than anywhere I've ever been..They didn't need no stinkin' gangs.
... I think Carlos (from NOLA) tried to control Dallas for a while, but even HE gave it up after the JFK Assasination. I have to think, their attitude was...Let 'em have it, they'll kill each other off, and THEN we can move back in. According to the FBI, that hasn't happened yet..