“I enjoy playing all kinds of things, like tennis and chess. But I wanted to choose one and be decent at it. So I chose pool. I started playing when I was 14 at a place in Highlands called Pop’s Highlander Club. The owner used to sit in a recliner, and he had one or two pool tables downstairs. It was just a nickel or dime a game. I got hooked on it. Being able to make a white, round object do what you want it to do, there’s nothing like it.”

Are you pretty competitive?
“Oh, yeah. I hate to lose. I don’t care what it is: tiddlywinks, mumbledypeg, pool. I don’t like losing.”

The post He’s a competitor, and he doesn’t like losing appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“I would fly out to Las Vegas to play in pool tournaments, and I would see people my age as flight attendants. I thought, ‘Man, this looks like a lot of fun. If I ever decide to go back to work fulltime after I retire, I want to be a flight attendant.’

“I’ve been doing it now for 13 years. I just turned 74 in August. We have one guy in Orlando who turned 82 in June. He’s still a flight attendant, and he works circles around younger people. I was on a flight one day, and there were four of us. One was 75. I think I was 71 at the time. The next oldest guy was in his mid-60s, and we had a youngster of like 46.

“I still love what I do. I really enjoy getting away and taking a three-day vacation. A friend of mine, a fellow flight attendant and retired preacher, said to me one time, ‘This is not a job. It’s a paid vacation.’ And that’s what it feels like.

“From the time I was a kid, I’ve always loved airplanes. There’s just something about them. When you’re young, you would look up in the sky and think, ‘Where are they going now?’

“And now, when I’m up in the sky and looking down at all those little cars driving around, I think, ‘I wonder where they’re going. I wonder what they’re doing in their lives.’ Looking out of airplane windows is so much fun. I love it.”

— Tom Shelby

Related:

• Flight attendant gets creative for passengers
• He’s a competitor, and he doesn’t like losing

The post Flight attendant still going strong at age 74 appeared first on The Baytown Project.