Totally true. I played this growing up in The Bronx.
We’d yell “Hot Peas and Butter-Scotch”….
and invariable one kid who spied the belt’s hiding place would lure the other kids close by playing possum and then grab it swinging.
No hitting with the buckle, no at the face and no “double-strap” folding it half.
But God help the kid who was blocked off from the stoop.