A story from Bill Rammelkamp.

Years ago the guys from Maujer st and Teneyck st played the Hasidm boys from Marcy Ave in a game of punchball. This must be back around 1960.

Before the game a fight almost broke out because we played with a tennis ball and they played with a white pimple ball. It was decided that one game would be played wih each ball.

We did some special stuff to the tennis ball. It was taken and put in a brown paper bag. Then the bag was put on fire so all the heavy hair was burned off. We used these heavier balls instead of the Spaldeen because we could get more English on it.

When we played stickball if we didn’t have the money for a ball, we would take a newspaper, fold it up to abou 1 1’2 inches. After you had that thickness you’d roll it up, put a rubber band around it as tight as you could get it and then put it on the curb and bang it down with a stickball handle, to make it as hard as possible.

You could do all kinds of things with that kind of ball. Great spins & flukes and when you hit it, you could make it fly.

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Well, we were definitely more interested in that story than the game that was going on. The Bronxfield Bombers won 13-2. We’re cleaning up and getting ready to go. More pictures will be posted on the site over the weekend. See you next week in Manhattan.