WASHINGTON POST: It was a foregone conclusion that Robert “Z Man” Mackey would trounce Bryant “Buster” McClain in checkers on a recent Thursday night. The fundamental uncertainty at the Capital Pool Checkers club in Northwest Washington would instead concern matters of honor and psychology: Who would win the game of trash talk?
“I’ll take it, you give it,” said McClain, sitting about one-and-a-half feet across from Mackey with the board in between. “You give it, I’ll take it. You give it, I’ll take it. Man, there’s something here.”
“Yeah, something’s here,” Mackey said, rather sinisterly. “But ain’t nothing there for you. It’s going to hit your head, that’s right. Hit your bald head. You ain’t got no hair up there up to cushion the lick.”
McClain, 58, a photographer from Capitol Heights, Md., was unfazed.
“Come on. You got any more moves? Let me know,” McClain retorted. “Because I’ll be here waiting for you. You got any more? I’ll be wait-ing.”
“I’m wait-ing.” Mackey, 77, a retired home improvement worker from Southeast Washington, stabbed one of his pieces forward. A minute later, he crowned one of his pieces a king. Another minute passed, then Mackey crowned a second king. McClain sighed and looked confused. By now, he had two pieces left, compared to Mackey’s two kings and two other pieces. What went wrong? Something was there, McClain had thought. He rubbed his pate and promptly gave up.
For more than 40 years, the Capital Pool Checkers club has operated like a quasi-fraternity whose members are mostly Black men and all longtime Washingtonians. The club has survived not only old age — and incessant taunting — but the perils of the city’s gentrifying real estate market. As its 20 or so members celebrate Thanksgiving, they look back on the last two years with gratitude that they could keep their club alive — a club that they say keeps them alive.
