Gerda Hofstatter-Gregerson - Part 3 (Hustle, Hurricanes, and a Hall of Fame Journey)

Mike Gonzalez 0:15

Curdy, you're probably not surprised to hear that uh you're not the Lone Ranger as it relates to others who have tried to emulate the Duchess of Doom and her methods. Oh. Only to realize that uh perhaps the results you got out of that effort were not what you expected.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 0:32

I'm sure. I'm sure, yeah. She was such a huge influence.

Mike Gonzalez 0:35

Yeah.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 0:36

And yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 0:37

It even happened. But it makes me I was a very instinctive sort of player, and then I took a school from Allison and I got all this mechanics down, and I it just messed me all up.

Allison Fisher 0:47

Right. It's not for everyone, is it Mark? It's not for everyone.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 0:53

It was it was fascinating. But it was down to the point of you know how to hold acoustic. Like where do you feel the pressure in your fingers? Uh and I'm like, oh my gosh, okay. I guess I never knew that's how you hold acoustic. So You held it like your foil, remember?

Mike Gonzalez 1:13

Yeah.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 1:13

Yeah, that's how I held it, but then I tried to change it.

Mike Gonzalez 1:17

But it's all but the thing you said at the very beginning about you started thinking about things you'd never thought about before, back to that clear head.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 1:24

You started Yes, yes. I remember when I when I played my best, I the only thing I thought about was was in front of my eyes. You know, I saw the balls, I knew what I wanted to happen, and that's all I ever thought about. And I could see my cue stick moving in a straight line, and I knew when to let go. Never once did I have a thought of what goes on behind me, you know, my the arm that does everything, never got a thought until I met Allison. And then all the thoughts went back there, and I forgot to look at what I was doing. And it's a very interesting thing that what happened there with the psychology of it.

Mike Gonzalez 2:07

All Allison wanted to do was be a positive influence.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 2:10

And she was. She I I mean it when I say she has raised a level, not just for women, but also men. I could see men all of a sudden thinking twice about how they are standing, how they are queuing. Anyway, it makes so much sense, you know, that uh to focus on delivering the queue straight. And there's uh, you know, that that there's certain things that make way more sense than others. I mean, there's there's a lot of different techniques, but the way snooker players do it and you in particular just makes a lot of sense.

Mark Wilson 2:45

Years and years later, Gerda came to my pool room and we had a week of training approximately. And you could just see that, you know, we changed a couple of little things, but she's so hardworking, she embraced it right away and started to see consistency levels rise. But it would take more than a week to reform that whole thing. And I always kind of regretted that I didn't have more time to share with her because the direction was right. And even today, with a little bit of a tremor, if she put her mind to it, I promise you, you could be top player. Oh my gosh.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 3:19

Even with my tremor, have you seen it, Mark?

Mark Wilson 3:21

100%. Nick Farner, Dick Lane. There's many guys, Jerry Bryce's.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 3:25

That's true.

Mark Wilson 3:26

And and and they still run over a hundred balls, you know. So yes, you have to learn to time it and control it, but it's doable because there's players that have had it much longer than you have and still learn to play proficient. But you gotta have that drive again, you know, and that's that's the part that you know, as we age, sometimes you lose a little bit of that.

Allison Fisher 3:44

But fair enough. The drive is a big part, and I remember recently with Mark when I came to a clinic and Nick Varner was saying, boy, has he still got the drive. Yeah, it's so cute. Nick's still serious. It's so lovely. He is amazing. You're still competitive.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 4:01

Yeah. Mark, that I remember that week of training with you with Morgan, right? Morgan and I came. Just it was amazing. I loved that time with you so much. You're an amazing instructor, and I that was the best thing, spending time with you and practicing, and some characters in your room there too, that I enjoyed meeting. It was fantastic. Yeah, very, very cool. But Nick Warner, funny you mentioned him, because all going all the way back to who taught me how to train, you know, Jürgen in Sweden. Jürgen learned everything from Nick Warner.

Allison Fisher 4:35

Really?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 4:36

Yes, it was Nick Warner who I think either I don't know where he came up with all those exercises and drills, but it all goes back to Nick Warner. I remember Jürgen saying that.

Mike Gonzalez 4:47

Interesting. Interesting. Well, let's go back to 1997 then, because again, arguably one of your best years uh in pool. You had a a win again at the Leisure Bay Billiards. This time it was contested in New Orleans, also winning the Brunswick Billiards WPBA National Nine Ball Championship. A couple of other European pool championships. Uh this year was in straight pool and eight ball. So tell us about what you remember from that time in your career.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 5:15

I think it was the only time where I ever won two tournaments in a row. Is that correct? Did you say that? So I think that's what made that one special.

Mike Gonzalez 5:25

You're right.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 5:25

They were coming off a win and then being motivated by the win and practicing even harder. Maybe I learned from winning the world championship and then going out that you know.

Mike Gonzalez 5:38

Yeah. None of those two-and-out stuff, huh?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 5:40

You don't do that anymore. So being fearful of that, I might have practiced even harder after winning tournaments just to, you know, keep the momentum going.

Allison Fisher 5:51

The ledger bay one, was that the Wild Horse Saloon, I think, in New Orleans. And didn't you garnish the name after that of Hurricane Hosteter?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 6:01

Oh my god, please don't mention that. Why is that being mentioned? Oh god. Oh my god, I don't even know. The beverage, the hurricane hostet. I do not want to remember that. That was terrible.

Allison Fisher 6:12

We were with my dad and my brother. My dad and my brother came over for that event and we hit hit the hit it hard, didn't we, in New Orleans.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 6:19

I beat you in New Orleans, I remember that. Your brother was not happy.

Allison Fisher 6:25

Yeah. But we went out and we still celebrated with it. Do you know what happened? There was a mime artist outside the one of these bars, and Gerda went out and was doing the same back. He was doing these movements, she she made him lose it. He ended up backing up and going home, I think. Didn't he?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 6:46

Because you were doing the same back. I must have already had a hurricane in you when I did that. It's so funny. I I do remember that competing with him, and we formed a crowd. There was a crowd around us watching us doing the mime competition. It was pretty funny.

Allison Fisher 7:02

That's right.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 7:03

Sherry and Vicky and But that night I feel like is the only night that I ever lost memory of because I had one hurricane, too many. And I blame it on you, Fishers, because you all are crazy.

Allison Fisher 7:15

Yeah, we are. Yeah, fishers.

Mike Gonzalez 7:18

Reminds me of Kelly's story when she plays the match and then didn't even remember playing the match.

Allison Fisher 7:23

She played a match, woke up, Gerda, at three in the afternoon thinking she'd missed a match. She'd already played it, didn't realize.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 7:29

No way. Oh my god, I'm I have never heard that. That is crazy. Yes, yes.

Mike Gonzalez 7:34

That's a bunch of hurricanes there.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 7:36

That's heavy stuff. And then, hey Ellie, down in New Orleans, weren't we weren't you friendly with a family that had a sailboat or something? Well, we're here. We met them at the tournament and made friends with them.

Allison Fisher 7:51

Yeah.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 7:52

And I had the worst night of my life drinking all those hurricanes, and I remember I couldn't even hold a sip of water down, right? And then Ellie had committed us going on to the sailboat trip the next morning.

Mike Gonzalez 8:06

Oh, that'll be fun.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 8:08

Oh my god. That was the worst. That was the worst feeling ever.

Allison Fisher 8:13

Yeah. Good times. We met them there and they offered. We met them at the tournament. At the tournament. We're like, yeah, all right. Oh dear.

Mike Gonzalez 8:27

Speaking of Japan.

Allison Fisher 8:30

Oh Japan.

Mike Gonzalez 8:32

Would this have been about the time you guys were traveling in Japan occasionally?

Allison Fisher 8:37

Oh gosh, Japan. Gerda, do you remember? We booked up to go over and they were having this special banquet for us. And I was sitting on the couch and I said, Gerda, is it Sunday today? She goes, Yeah. And I said, I think we were supposed to go to Japan yesterday. Because you land the day ahead. I probably looked at the Sunday. We had the date screwed up. We had the date screwed up. And we imagine back in those days, it wasn't was there internet? I don't know. We had to somehow call Japan or somehow get the word out.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 9:14

Did it over the phone, yeah. That we could we didn't get the flight. We were just lucky that the airline was cooperative. They just let us go the next day. I remember they didn't charge us a whole bunch of money. They just booked us over the next day. But that was that was horrible because they had things planned for us in Japan. And we we were a whole day late because of the time difference mix up. But it but it still worked out.

Allison Fisher 9:40

It did work out, and they were so nice, they took us to a geisha house over there, which was a big to-do, wasn't it? That was incredible. Yeah. Yes. Yes. So we got to see that and what what they did, the entertainment. It was really fantastic time in Japan. They really looked after us. Were we there for the Japan Championship?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 10:00

Yes. But we were.

Allison Fisher 10:01

Which is always wonderful.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 10:02

Yeah, but we were invited to come a couple of days early.

Allison Fisher 10:06

Yeah. Kyoto, went to Kyoto, and I think the tournament was in Osaka. Right, exactly. Always lovely, the Japanese people. Very humbling experience. And a great place to visit.

Mike Gonzalez 10:20

Nothing crazy ever happened there. That's what I'm fishing for here.

Allison Fisher 10:23

Oh. Well, don't know.

Mike Gonzalez 10:27

Yes, yes.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 10:28

Anything crazy in Japan under trip?

Allison Fisher 10:30

But I'm not sure that that was where we met him. There was a guy in Japan who was a distributor of cues, I think. And we met him and we would talk to him and he he didn't understand a word we would say. And all he would say back to us, yes, yes. Everything we would say was, yes, yes. So to this day, Gerdo and I do that a lot. We say something, I'll go, yes, yes.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 10:54

It's in honor of him. Yeah, he was lovely. What a sweet man. He organized the trip for us. And I remember he booked us hotels when we were traveling on. He was sort of chaperoning us. Yeah. And yeah. Yes, yes. Yes, yes. Very cool.

Mike Gonzalez 11:11

The the best stories we get from the ladies on our golf podcast are all about going to Japan. Because it was the end of the LPGA tour season, so there'd be 20 of them who just pack over there. And and a lot of them never hung out much, right, socially while while on tour, but they just got to be best buddies over there, had the wildest times.

Allison Fisher 11:31

Yeah. Too funny. Great place to be, Japan.

Mike Gonzalez 11:34

Yeah.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 11:35

Speaking of Japan, a few years later, I'm afraid I don't remember the year, but uh Paul Partier has strong connections to Japan, right? Uh yes. I think isn't the mother of his child Japanese? I know he spent a lot of time over there, anyways, and he even speaks some Japanese and everything. At one point, he organized a tour over there, invited me to come along, and it was two weeks traveling in Japan. Paul and I did like exhibition games in all these different pool rooms. Every day we would stop at a different pool room and play people matches, you know, exhibition matches, and we did that for two weeks straight. Different pool room every day. And I got to know the southern part of Japan. And the amount of players that are awesome over there is just phenomenal. Like anybody with a house stick was really, really good. And the other thing I remember they were all chain smoking constantly. Like you walk into a pool room with just a cloud of smoke. And they were all so fascinated, they were all right up at the table. You're trying to play, and they're all right up against the table. They didn't give you any room, right? They're just hanging right over the table, just barely give you enough room to cue. And but we had the best time and cut the No Japan a little bit and played for two weeks traveling in a van from venue to venue. And so that's my other Japan memory.

Mike Gonzalez 13:08

Well, speaking of Paul, wasn't it you two and Mike Massey and Paul together for the beginning of pool schools?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 13:20

I feel like that was the beginning of pool schools, wasn't it? Yeah, that was it was Paul kicking it all off, right? Yeah, Paul got in touch with his friendchild.

Allison Fisher 13:31

Yeah, and he had an idea to create this pool school with Gerda, myself, Mike Massie, and him. And the first one was in Hawaii, in Kauai. Kauai. We couldn't say no to that, of course. No, no, no. And uh lots of students, probably probably wasn't cheap. It was a full no, not cheap at all. Probably a few thousand dollars apiece, wasn't it? I think per student. And uh we had a fantastic time, didn't we, in Kauai. That was great. And then we continued it every year after that and eventually moved to Vancouver, which was another beautiful place. Yes. And we did that for many, many years, didn't we, Gerda? Yes, always an awesome great student.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 14:11

I think it was open to sixteen students, I want to say.

Allison Fisher 14:18

Actually it was sixteen because it'd be four per player, it was four of us. And anyway, we kick it off the first day would be activity day. And Paul would arrange cycling around Vancouver, you know, there were different things you could do, but I'd the the sight of Mike Matty, you know how tall he is and how big his hands are on a bike. He looked like E.T. You know, it was just and he and then the gears, remember the gears shifting and all that. It was just and then his little head in a well, his big head in a little helmet, going around Vancouver, Granville Island.

Mike Gonzalez 14:56

Mark, you could probably picture the the the big guys in the Shriner parade riding the little bikes that you've seen those guys before.

Allison Fisher 15:02

That's what it was like with the feathers and but he did it, he did it. We would cycle around with all the students, miles and miles, and we'd end up at a picnic in the park, wouldn't we? After that.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 15:14

Right. But do you feel like there weren't too many pool schools around before that? That that really was the beginning, and then all kinds of players started doing pool schools after that.

Allison Fisher 15:23

I did think that. When you think back about it, I yeah, I don't remember there being many schools.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 15:28

Mark, when did you start your pool schools?

Mark Wilson 15:32

Were you probably in the nineties, I would imagine.

Allison Fisher 15:36

Same. Same. So it's it was very big on television, so it made made a lot of sense too, didn't it? Right. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 15:45

Well, let's come back to the US tour then, Gerda. In in ninety nine. You won a couple of times on tour, the Discovery Huther Doyle Rochester Classic and the Brunswick Billiards New York Classic.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 16:00

Okay. That was 99. So I had already moved to California. I think not sure, but I think I was already living in San Francisco.

Mike Gonzalez 16:13

Oh, okay.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 16:14

And I yeah, I got an apartment. I had a sponsor out in California, Kel Space, and I got an apartment in San Francisco right next door to a poor room. And I made friends with the owner and the manager of their poor room, and I had access to the room before it opened. And the manager, the both the manager and the owner of their poor room were extremely supportive of my career and my practice time out there. And I feel like I reached another level because there were some weekly tournaments that they had, and I had some practice partners. And you know, just the enthusiasm of them encouraging me to train properly. I think that's what made me win those two tournaments in 1999.

Mike Gonzalez 16:59

Interesting. So it makes me think then, uh, prior to then, what sort of access every year would you have to practice facilities and tables? Did you have them in some of the places you lived or always in pool rooms?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 17:13

Yeah. We always had tables go to the pool room, like in Charlotte, it was mother's billiards that Kenny Oyama owned. So the pool room had you walk in and they had two sides. On the right side, it was Gandhi tables for the amateurs. And if you walk to the left in the back, there were, I don't know, nine or ten diamond tables. Yes, yeah. And it was such an awesome pool room. And that's where we all, you know, at one point there were seven women pool players living in Charlotte. Was it right, Ali? Oh yeah, it was. Yeah, but but we the hub to practice was at Mother's Billiards, and it was always a pool room that we, you know, were friendly with and we were allowed free practice time. I never had access to a room, you know, by myself without there being a crowd until San Francisco. I mean in Sweden early on I did, but then I moved away. But here in America, out in San Francisco, I literally had a key to the room and I could go early before they opened and just have quiet time and you know, practice in peace. So, and I feel like that was very helpful.

Allison Fisher 18:22

What I was gonna say is back in the mother's days, so 95 till till you left San Francisco, we'd just get up, exercise, eat, go to the poor room at 10 o'clock when it opened, practice till 12 on our own, play somebody in the room or each other. Ava would be in there, wouldn't she, at 10 o'clock, too. And then she would leave because she'd have to go and pick up Nikki from school, and then we would leave. But it was it was a routine every day. We would do that same thing every day. Yeah, and some great locals there. Remember Ron Park. Oh yeah. Billy Brand. Billy Brand and all sorts of people. We'd have locals come in, Malcolm, and yeah, it's just really, really fun times.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 19:07

It is so awesome. That is so awesome. Like all the characters in pool rooms, you know that you mean. I didn't have enough of that. Yeah, Gene.

Allison Fisher 19:17

Didn't have enough.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 19:21

Didn't have enough of that scene. Yeah, but I know that's what's so funny about pool, all these characters in the rooms.

Mike Gonzalez 19:29

So is it amazing? It's fair to say these days, then the elite players probably are all home with their own setups, their own equipment, tables, laser, cameras, all kinds of crazy stuff, right?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 19:43

Completely different ballgame.

Allison Fisher 19:44

Yeah. Or access, or or the access, like she said, but they can go in when they want.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 19:49

Yeah, like now, yeah, I have a table in like right underneath me. I'm sitting in my loft up here in my office, but underneath me is my nine foot diamond, you know, perfect setup. So I got that pretty much after I stopped competing just because Dan and I love pool. But yeah, I I I would think that most almost all professional players have their own setup now at home.

Mike Gonzalez 20:16

Pretty rare though, with the players of your era, I would guess, huh?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 20:20

I would think so. Yeah, I didn't know of anybody then who had a table at home. That's true, actually. Ava did in Michigan when I first met Ava in Michigan, but she had a table, but it was in the basement, and nobody nobody ever played on it. Even she went to the pool hall in Lansing.

Mike Gonzalez 20:37

Mark, how about on the men's side?

Mark Wilson 20:40

Today? No, no, back it back in the day. I mean, it did not not too much. Yeah, it was usually that they would go to a friend's house or in a public pool room, but also you kind of like the competition. You also like the social aspect of it.

Allison Fisher 20:54

Yeah. And uh it's like going to an office, isn't it? Really? I think going to a room is making you do it. When you've got it at home, you don't always go and do what you should be doing.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 21:05

Too easy to be distracted, do other things. Yeah, that's true.

Mike Gonzalez 21:11

Well, good point. So uh let's go to 2000 then. You win the BCA Open Nine Ball Championship. What's going on in your life with this tournament?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 21:20

Wait, I remember that tournament. You know why I remember that one? Because I will I lost my very first match in that tournament. Is that true? Do I remember that right? Very true. If you remember it, that's probably what happened. And I went all the way through the loser side. I think I won 11 matches in a row to win that tournament. That was amazing. Yes, only time I ever did that. And the other thing I remember about that event, Ellie, didn't I play you in the finals? And and Mike Bonoso flashed the camera in the middle. I think so. I think that's a good one.

Allison Fisher 21:56

We have a picture of us in sunglasses.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 21:58

Good and Mike. That's that's a picture then. Mike accidentally his flash went off on the camera on a crucial shot and he didn't lift that down. We were laughing about it. Don't forgive him for that one. Yeah, that was a special tournament for that reason. And it was also may maybe the biggest paycheck I ever got.

Allison Fisher 22:19

Yeah, BCI, BCI was a big event. Yeah, I think I won 15,000 on that one. Yeah, one of the majors. Right. Very cool.

Mike Gonzalez 22:29

Where were you hanging your hat at this time in your life, 2000, 2001? Still living out one year.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 22:34

In 2000, yeah, I was still in California, and that year I moved to New York. I wanted to go to school, so I wanted to go to NYU. So I moved to New York in 2000. But I cannot remember. I think the BCA opened. I think I was already in New York. Do you happen to know what month the BCA open was? I want to say I was already in New York. It was in the summer. Summer? Then I was still in San Francisco. But I think I already had plans to go to New York. Yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 23:05

So tell us about that decision to go to New York, to go to school, you go to NYU to study business. What was that all about? Plan B?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 23:16

I it was something that I always wanted to do, go to university, but it didn't work out. And you know, I always had the excuse of I'm traveling, I'm too busy, I can't do it. And then I'm really not sure how what made me decide I finally do it when I moved to New York. I remember I became very good friends with the Bolucas family in New York. They own a pool room, you know, Jean Bolucas, who was the first Hall of Fame player we all know, an amazing player. She uh and her family owned a huge pool room in in Bayridge, Brooklyn. And that became my new home base. Um I started practicing there and just had a great setup there. And not sure why I went to an open house at the U New York University. I was in the city and wandered into an open house and just started inquiring, you know, what it would be like to study as an adult. And they were extremely helpful, and I liked what I heard and I made a plan to do it. And then and then it was expensive, obviously. And it was Allie who, you know, said to me, Well, we can do it. Why don't we do a pool school? Help you finance your studies. So that's when we started the pool school in Charlotte, Ali's World Champion Academy. She you know, she let me be her country. Well, we both trained up to it.

Allison Fisher 24:44

And we did uh we probably did a few a year, didn't we?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 24:47

Yeah, we did like four four, at least four of them a year. Which uh yeah, which made me enough income to pay for my degree at NYU.

Mike Gonzalez 24:58

Wow.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 24:58

Yes.

Mike Gonzalez 24:59

Well, not only did she get a degree, Mark. You talk about being the overachiever, she did it in style, didn't she?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 25:07

No.

Mike Gonzalez 25:07

Oh yeah, there would be only one way that Goethe would do it. Magna cum lauda?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 25:12

You're sweet.

Mike Gonzalez 25:13

Hello.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 25:14

I went to the ceremony, actually. I think my graduation in my purple gown.

Allison Fisher 25:22

That's right. That's right.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 25:24

You know, it was an amazing experience, but looking back, and and what did I do with it? Nothing. No, it was a good, it was an awesome experience, and you know, I'm glad I did it. But I'm not sure why I did it. I guess it was just something that was on my list of things I need to check off, and and I did it. And I'm proud I did it. But I looking back, I'm not sure it was very useful.

Mike Gonzalez 25:53

Well, you never know. I mean you probably have a degree in your life.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 25:56

You think it could still come? The use for it could still come? Who knows?

Allison Fisher 26:01

You never know. Do you know in Goethe's background, all of her sisters are teachers, aren't they? Yes. And you're a natural teacher too. Right. Interesting, I think.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 26:12

So yeah, academics, I guess, was always a part of my life, and I'm always fascinated. And I'm, you know, married to student for life. Dan is always studying something and learning every single day. So I'm always inspired by people who want to continue to grow in education. Education, yeah.

Mike Gonzalez 26:31

Yeah, exactly. Let's come back to uh go ahead. Sorry.

Allison Fisher 26:35

And what I was going to say, which is where you met Dan, was at one of our poor schools.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 26:40

That's right. I know. I probably have to thank you, Ellie, because I think it was you who attracted him. Yeah. The Fisher Queen.

Allison Fisher 26:50

He came to to learn from us and uh met his future wife.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 26:55

That's right. Too funny how life works out.

Allison Fisher 26:59

It is interesting, isn't it? Yes. So then you so you got together, you two got together.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 27:08

Well, it took a long time. We we became, you know, friendly and just started talking on the phone a lot. It took quite a while for us to become a couple, but here we are. We've been together almost 20 years and have two wonderful children. So I couldn't be more grateful. I never would have thought, you know, I had my first daughter at 40. I never thought I would have kids, and it's like the best thing ever. I am so happy, I can't even tell you. It's amazing, isn't it? No, there's nothing like it, so I'm very, very grateful it turned out that way.

Allison Fisher 27:47

We played we played a US Open, she got to the bloody final, right? And we're playing US. I'm playing her pregnant.

Mike Gonzalez 27:54

Two against one.

Allison Fisher 27:55

Yeah, two against one again. You know, because I had that with Laurie John a lot. Whenever you play Laurie John, she was pregnant. It's always dangerous.

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 28:04

Yeah. Yeah, there's something about being pregnant that you know it just makes you so stable mentally and so wait forward. Wait forward. I wait for, but exactly keeps stops you from jumping up.

Mike Gonzalez 28:18

It keeps you there on the shop. Yeah. I remember that movie.

Allison Fisher 28:21

It's amazing. She got to US Open Final. When was that when you were pregnant with Sophie?

Gerda Hofstatter Gregerson 28:25

No, I was pregnant with Maddie. I already had Sophie at that point. That was one of my last tournaments. That was 2012. I think we played in the summer, and three months later, my second daughter Maddie was born.

Allison Fisher 28:38

Oh. Thank you for listening to another episode of Legends of the Queue. If you like what you hear, wherever you listen to your podcast, including Apple and Spotify, please follow, subscribe, and spread the word. Give our podcast a five-star rating and share your thoughts. Visit our website and support our Paul History project. Until our next golden break with more Legends of the Cube, so long everybody