Regarding the queries about Russian and 7 Up. When I grew up in Brooklyn in the early 1960s, we called the game Russian 10. You had to do task 1 one time, task 2 two times etc. until the 10th task which you had to do 10 times. Unfortunately I don’t remember all the tasks. Following are the tasks I can remember, but the order may be incorrect.

1. Throw Spalding against wall and catch on fly.
2. Throw ball at wall, let it bounce once and catch
3. Throw ball at wall, clap and catch on fly.
4. Throw ball under your leg and catch on fly.
5. If right handed: put left palm against the wall and hold arm straight. Hold ball in right hand and toss it from under your left arm over your outstretched left arm and catch it.
6. Throw ball at wall, spin around and catch on fly.
7. Throw ball at wall, clap hands in front of body, behind body and in front again and catch ball on fly. (You have to clap very quickly!)

I believe a player’s turn lasted until she missed catching the ball. On her next turn she had to start from the step she missed on.

This is as much as I can remember. If someone out their in cyberspace remembers all 10 tasks, please e-mail!