JIM, THE LAWYER

 

JIM, THE LAWYER

 

JIM, THE LAWYER

At the Sport Palace pool room in New Orleans, people were often given nicknames to help identify them when talking about a particular person or simply a sign of respect and friendship.  A lot of people didn’t share their last name.  There was always lots of paranoia in this pool room, because if you weren’t on your toes, one of the bandits that frequented the 24 hour joint would surely put you in a trap.

Jim, the lawyer was an attorney, who loved rubbing elbows with the denizens of this house of ill repute, but many of us called it our second home and sometimes spent more time at our second home than we should have.  Jim never played pool, but he was an excellent card player with great memory skills and he was a usual winner in the regular card game Spades.  Even when a couple of the bandits would team up on Jim, they couldn’t beat him.  His real name was Jim Durio and he was a good friend.

It wasn’t until 1980 when I first entered the Sport Palace and getting invited into the “PRIVATE” card room proved to be strange, because no one invited you to enter the PRIVATE card room located in the very back of the building.  There were card sharps and professional gamblers that hung out there waiting to shear the sheep or slay a lamb (figurately speaking).  I spend most of my time hanging out in the pool room, getting schooled by some of the better one pocket pool players but my curiosity finally got the best of me and I snuck back into the “PRIVATE” card room without an invitation.  As I walked into the card room, every head in the place laid eyes on me and I knew then that I had better stay sharp because these fellow didn’t have mercy on beginning card players or anyone for that matter.  Eat or be eaten was how things were done in both the card room and the pool room.

After a few visits to the card room which had an actual Charter posted on the entrance door, I noticed that Jim was a regular face and didn’t look too predatory.  When he was in the front part of the pool room watching some pool action taking place, I struck up a conversation with him and I instantly enjoyed his company.  He was intelligent, friendly and while he didn’t play pool hardly at all, he knew the pecking order of all of the pool players and I needled him for any information that I could pry from his lips.  Jim, was always cautious when talking to me, often looking over his shoulder when he “accidentally” clued me in on this one or that one.  By this time, he knew I was a man that could be trusted so while he wasn’t one to just go blabbing about what was actually happening around the pool scene, he would occasionally share some important intel, to help keep me somewhat safe among these  wolves. 

Jim would occasionally invite me to play in some cheap Spade card games and I could tell that he didn’t always send me to the cleaners but like I said, he usually won.  He would often tell me what I did wrong with certain plays and he was always right.  I believe his uncanny memory helped to separate him from the ordinary card players because at the very end of a Spades game, he almost always knew what you were holding in your hand.  While there were others in that card room, who would mark the cards, essentially cheating the person they were playing with, Jim wasn’t that kind of guy and had no need to stoop low to win at any card game.  We had one guy, I’ll just call him “Red” who kept a small mirror in the crease of his fingers and when he was dealing the cards, he could look at the mirror and see what card he was dealing to each player.  Eventually, some of caught on and just avoided gambling with that guy but new sheep were always being added to the card room and each had to learn on their own.  There were others who would shuffle the cards in a flamboyant way, and I learned watching this other guy name Moose, he was short to begin with and would look at the cards as they were flying through the air as he shuffled.  Yes, for some of you, you may think that it was a terrible thing to take advantage of others in that manner but it was a sort of code of honor among most of these thieves and the word was, “Don’t knock anyone else’s action or you might receive some unwanted attention and even develop a reputation as a “Knocker”, which in this gambling pool room was a person who was considered persona non grata.  I learned early on that if someone was your friend, you could clue him in privately, but open discussion about cheats, skill levels, drug dealers, money intel and such were not generally appreciated or tolerated.  I soon found out that even the most hardened gamblers shared their knowledge with a few chosen, probably in the hopes of gaining favor with others that might result in a financial windfall down the road.

After about a year of playing Spades, I started being able to win more than I lost, although I would never become the card player that Jim the lawyer was.  Often the Spade games were composed of 4 players.  One afternoon after work, I walked in and Jim was just getting up from the table and it looked like the card game was over because they needed a fourth person to complete the Spade game.  Jim pulled me over on the side and said, “You can play with these guys.”, meaning that I could win if I played at my average level and had lady luck smile on me once in a while.  I didn’t know the skill level of the other three players and was cautious about getting in a card game with someone who I didn’t know.  Jim reached into his pocket and gave me $60 and said, this should take care of any expenses for the night in this game.  He had already assessed my potential loss risk and thought that it would be hard for me to lose more than $60 in a few hours of card play with these particular guys.  Skinny Bob and Tenneco were two of the three players as I was introduced to them and I sat down and got comfortable with their style of play at Spades.  I forget the third person’s name but I got the impression that he wasn’t a highly skilled gambler but enjoyed the game.

Jim had already left for the evening and said he would see me “next time”.  That next time I saw him was  24 hours later when I showed up after getting off from my day job as a salesman for Lewis Business Forms.  Jim, curiously asked, “How’d you do?”.  I reached into my pockets where I had separated his $60 stake plus the profits.  I had kept the money bunched up and jammed together without any order and started pulling handfuls of ones, fives, tens and twenties from my pockets and placed everything on the table.  He looked at me incredulously with a grin and twinkle in his eye and said, “You won all that from those guys?”  It turned out to be a little over $400 profit total.  He was amazed and I was so glad to show him that his faith in me was well-placed.  I didn’t know what he wanted to do with the profits, but he made what I considered a generous offer to split the profits 50-50.  This happened in 1981, maybe 1982 and it was a good “score” back then and just another learning experience.  Jim had a motto that he would use often when I was around.  He said, “It is always important to earn why you learn.”  Lol

Our friendship continued over the years and I learned of his wife who was a nurse and met her once at his home.  I met his son John who was a young successful entrepreneur and knew of his daughter who lived out of state.  One year, I was leaving work and was in my car waiting for the signal light to change and suddenly I heard wheels squealing as someone from behind me was trying to stop their speeding car, but they were going too fast and ran into the back of my car, giving me a solid hit, damaging the back of my car and jolting me a bit.  We called the police who came out and wrote a report and I did not feel bad enough to go to the hospital and had no cuts or bruises.  The other person had insurance and we exchanged insurance company information and they were issued a ticket.  I figured that the insurance company would pay to have my car fixed and that would be good enough for me.  However, the next morning I woke up with a terrible neckache and had to take some Excedrin pain reliever for the pain.  The pain did not go away and so I sought out my friend Jim, the lawyer for some advice.  He said he didn’t specialize in that type of law, but I asked him for advice anyway and knew he would give me his best.  He told me I should see a doctor, get some x-rays to see what type of damage had been done.  I did all of that and thankfully, no disc problems or broken bones.  It was determined that I had “soft-tissue” injury and required some physical therapy to get back to good health.  Jim and I spoke again not long after that and he informed me that injuries like mine could last quite a while and not to be hasty in settling the claim against the insurance company, that my health was my most important thing to consider.  So I went to therapy for several weeks and it may have been a few months.  It was so long ago I don’t remember how long I was going through therapy.   People who are injured in car wrecks have a limited time that they can settle a claim without going to court.  I want to say it was a year and so time passed quickly and under advisement from Jim, he told me that I didn’t need to hire an attorney would take at least 30% of the settlement and told me that settling a claim with an insurance company was kind of like negotiating a gambling pool match and that I should never take the insurance company first offer.  I understood about negotiating a pool game from the many hours I had spent in that den of iniquity and so they made an offer and I refused.  I suggested that they needed to make a much greater adjustment, and this went on for a few months.  Periodically, I would seek Jim’s counsel and he warned me that I would have to settle out of court by a certain date.  I think it was one year from the date of my accident.  After that time I would not be able to bring the insurance company to court.  Since I had no permanent injuries, I was ready to settle just before the time had expired and called the attorney for the insurance company and since they had already upped their offer once besides the initial offering, I explained that I only had one more day left to hire an attorney to represent me in court and that they would have to improve their last offer.  Jim had already explained to me the amount of money that was typically paid to people with my type of injury and the insurance once again raised their amount and I settled for a little over $9,000.  I attempted to pay Jim for his advice, but he would not take a penny and just said, “That’s what friends are for.  Besides, I didn’t represent you legally.  I just gave you a little advice.”  As the years passed, I learned that he had befriended other people from the pool room, giving them free legal advice but not representing anyone to my knowledge, legally. 

Jim, grew old but remained mentally sharp and kept physically fit, cutting his own grass into his 80’s.  I would meet him on Friday afternoons where we would occasionally meet at the new pool room of choice, Buffalo’s Billiard and share a couple of low alcohol beers.  He enjoyed sharing and repeating the story about him staking me one night 25 years ago to anyone who happened to be in our fellowship.  Jim told me that he still cut his own grass, but it took a little longer than what it used to take him to do it.  When we were becoming friends, he would tease me when I was cautious about getting into a particular gambling situation and he would say, “When you were a little boy, did a bear chase you in the woods?” insinuating that I was a little scared and a little paranoid.  He knew and I knew it was my caution that helped to prevent me from being labeled one of the sheep, but I always enjoyed his common sense, wit and conversation.  Jim hadn’t been seen for several weeks and so I called him one day and he said he couldn’t drive right now and that he was having some dizzy spells and was under a doctor’s care but he would get better and would come by the pool hall soon.  I told him that if he wanted, I could pick him up at his house and we could go to the pool room and hang out for an hour or two and I would bring him back home on any Friday afternoon of his choice.  He said that would be fine.  I waited a couple of more weeks and decided enough time had passed and called his home and his wife answered the phone.  I told her who I was and that I wanted to come pick Jim up and bring him to the pool hall.  His wife was a nurse, retired for several years but was in good health.  She said Jim wasn’t doing too good right now and it might be best for him to rest but that she would tell him what I called about and that he would be glad to hear and that when he recovered a bit more, I could come pick him up to make a swing by the pool room.  Unfortunately, Jim never recovered and passed on, but I will never forget his friendship and generosity. 

R.I.P. Jim Durio, my friend.