Several years ago, my dad’s health had taken a turn for the worse, and we decided it was time for him to move into an assisted living retirement home. We had already toured several places and put together a short list of options, so I started making calls to check on availability. To our surprise, his top pick had a vacant unit and he could move in right away.

One of the things he liked about the place was the recreation room with a pool table. It would be on his floor and just a few hundred feet down the hall from his apartment. Dad always loved playing pool, and as an outgoing, sociable guy, he was looking forward to making new friends at the pool table. I love pool too, and we agreed it would be fun to play together every time I came to visit. The decision to move into a retirement home is never an easy one, so it was nice he had something to look forward to about it.

From afar, I helped him get his move planned out. We hired a company that specializes in moving folks into senior living, and they were supposed to pack and unpack everything for him based on his direction. The move took longer than the company had estimated though, and they ended their day before making much progress getting him unpacked. They said they couldn’t return to unpack him for 1-2 weeks. Dad called and said he needed help; I hopped on a redeye a few hours later.

Settling In

I arrived at his new apartment the next morning to find that the movers hadn’t unpacked anything other than getting his bed set up and made. Dad, who was always tidy and organized, was anxious about how long it was going to take to get set up with as little energy as he had. With a quad-shot latte in my hand, I told him to sit in his chair and get ready to tell me where he wanted everything.

Shortly before 9pm, we broke down the last box and put its contents into place. After a few minutes of looking around the apartment to enjoy the sense of accomplishment together, I asked if he was up for a game of pool to celebrate. He said he was too tired and was just going to turn on a movie, but he encouraged me to head on down to shoot a bit myself.

“Play a little pool”

I walked down the hall and opened the door to the rec room. Everything was turned off, but I found a master switch on the wall. When I flipped it on, the overhead lights came on followed by the lights over the pool table. About a minute later while I was racking the balls, the TV turned on and I heard:

What do you say, Charlie, huh? Play a little pool? Wait out the heat.

I looked up and saw The Hustler on screen, with Paul Newman smiling at Myron McCormick. If you’re not familiar with it, this scene is about a minute and a half into the movie while we’re first meeting Paul Newman’s character, “Fast” Eddie Felson.

The Hustler: "What do you say, Charlie, huh? Play a little pool? Wait out the heat."

I chuckled and thought it was a nice touch having that movie set to auto-play, presumably with a DVD player hooked up. I left the movie on in the background while I played for a couple hours and it was just about over when I decided to pack up. I flipped the master switch back off and went back to dad’s apartment. He was already asleep, so turned in for the night myself.

The next morning, I told dad about the how they had The Hustler set to auto-play in the rec room. He thought it was cool that they were encouraging residents to use the pool table. We agreed it was a good sign that we picked the right place.

The Reveal

That night, Dad was up for playing some pool. We headed back to the rec room and again found it empty. I flipped on the master switch and the TV came on just like the night before. But this time it was a 24-hour news station.

I went looking for the remote, so I could put it back onto the movie. That’s when I discovered there was no DVD player. There was just a coax cable wired from the wall directly into the TV, and a print-out of the ~100 channels sitting on the counter where I found the remote. I pressed the ‘Last’ button on the remote, which switched it over to TCM - Turner Classic Movies.

After a moment of disbelief, it sank in. There was nothing set up to automatically play that movie. It just so happened that:

  • The pool table was one of the deciding factors that drew Dad to this place.
  • The movers didn’t get him unpacked, which led him to call me for help.
  • The timing worked out for me to grab a redeye and be at his door by morning.
  • Our unpacking ran the full day and wrapped up just before 9pm.
  • The TV in the rec room was last tuned to Turner Classic Movies before it was turned off.
  • TCM was airing The Hustler that night, in that exact time slot.
  • I walked into the rec room and flipped the master switch within the first minute or so of the movie starting.
  • The TV turned on with a delay just long enough to match up with when I was racking the balls.
  • The sound came on perfectly before, “What do you say, Charlie, huh? Play a little pool?”
  • The movie aired commercial-free, and I packed up before the movie ended, so I never caught an opening credit or a station bug.

It was all a wild coincidence!