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Chalk up for visit to Naps poolroom, cigar store on King Street

'Behind the curtain, dividing cigars and snooker, was a different world, one from the twenties or thirties of the last century,' author recalls
René Hackstetter

When I was 17 and shooting pool, one sanctuary was Nap Laurendeau’s on King where Jamie Tripp is now located. 

We are told in Osborne that Napolean Laurendeau Sr. built the structure in 1903 for his son-in-law Charlie Beatty as a tobacco shop and billiard room. The front was the tobacco shop, the back, the billiard hall.

Coming to Midland in 1871, Mr. Laurendeau Sr. was a shoemaker before establishing himself as a King Street merchant.

Behind the curtain, dividing cigars and snooker, was a different world, one from the twenties or thirties of the last century.

The lamps that hung over the tables shed the perfect shadowless light necessary for aiming the cue. The background was entirely dark except when the players leaned in for a shot. The only sounds were the balls striking each other and the low murmur or curse following the impact.

In the late sixties, Naps’ reign as tobacconists and poolroom operators waned. Time passed, the bright lights of Mackie and Nick Anest’s Uptown room beckoned and soon Naps was a memory.

René Hackstetter, May 27, 2022.