No Time for the Billiard Ballet (Details)
citation: Playboy, October 1963, 10(10):101, 156, 168-172
alias: None
teaser: this was it, they decided, this would liberate them from the rat race
summary: On a Sunday evening, Ray Rasmussen and his wife, Sophia, stop for coffee on their way home. Ray is stalling, not wanting the last day of the weekend to end, and the work week to begin. Ray complains he hasn't any special talent that would allow him to make a living doing what he likes. He resents the time his job takes from his life.
The next Sunday, the Rasumussens are visited by Ray's oldest friend, Phil Dabney, and his wife, June. The men are on the floor drawing colored discs on a large piece of paper, something they call the Billiard Ballet, or Pool Table Polka. It's a storyboard for a stop-action animation of pool balls they want to film.
Their wives accuse them both of stalling, avoiding the coming work week. The men concede the point, further complaining that not only does work take time away from what they like doing, they are not being compensated enough for it. They both want to spend more time doing things that interest them.
The next Saturday, Ray is mysteriously gone all day. When he comes home that night, he asks Sophia to arrange a picnic with the Dabneys for the next day. On Sunday, Ray drives everyone to the foothills north of Placerville. The two couples hike into the woods, picnicking in a meadow by a stream.
Ray tells the others the area where they are having lunch can be purchased for about $100 an acre; that they could build their own cottages there. When June questions how this could be done, just working on weekends, Ray makes a bold proposal: They should sell most of their possessions and move there.
When Sophia asks where they would get jobs, Ray explains they wouldn't need permanent jobs. They could live mostly off the land. They would live a simpler, more satisfying life, not unlike how their ancestors lived.
Convinced this is another Sunday-night Stall, the women don't take their husbands seriously until the next week, when the men can't discuss anything else. Declaring a moratorium on the subject, both couples agree to cease talking about it for two weeks, then make a decision whether to change their lifestyles, making what they imagine to be the best possible use of their time on Earth.
Two weeks later, they meet for breakfast. Ray and Sophie can't decide because Ray received a substantial salary increase. The Dabneys' decision is also uncertain. Phil received a promotion at work.
Ray suggests doing what his father did, when faced with a similar choice.
words: 6,519
genre: None
similar: None
people: Ray Rasmussen, Sophia Rasmussen, Phil Dabney, June Dabney, Al Kahler
places: South of San Francisco, CA; Sierra Nevada mountains, CA; Placerville, CA
comments: Forthcoming