Hanging out at the pool hall

DURHAM -- Old school.

No fancy bar with taps.

No computerized cash register with a touch screen.

No flat panel TVs hanging from the ceiling or the walls.

No signage to speak of outside of the innocuous, low-slung building on Broad Street.

Just an old-fashioned pool hall with 10 antique pool tables, dartboards, a couple of video games, a pinball machine and a custom-made shuffleboard table.

A place where a dollar still gets you four songs on the jukebox.

For more than 50 years, billiards has been a fixture on Broad Street. In the mid-1980s, The Green Room was born and became a local hangout. The Green Room reached almost legendary status when it was used in the filming of the 1988 movie "Bull Durham" and started what has been a two-decade journey, still going strong in a new location across the street.

A diverse and eclectic crowd can be found honing their skills on the green felt tables nightly. At one table, a couple of house painters will be laughing and making fun of each other's shots, while next to them a molecular biologist who works in Research Triangle Park sharpens her shot for the pool league she belongs to.

The rules are simple in the hall. And they're spelled out in black and white on a sign hanging above the vintage cash register:

1) We don't serve drunks.

2) Use common sense.

3) Respect others.

4) Take care of the equipment.

5) No drinks on the tables.

6) Don't talk with your mouth full.

Owners Andy Seamans and Michael Dearing grew up hanging out at the bar and consider it a dream that they are able to keep the tradition alive after becoming the new owners of the pool hall.

Wearing a blue oxford buttoned to the top and a smile hidden behind a full beard, Dearing says he loves the fact that "this place is not only full of character, but it's filled with characters."