In the addition to the many ball games mentioned here, we played a few we thought to be our own invention in 60s/70s Queens. I wonder if others had similar games.

One was porch ball in which players got points for tossing the ball onto the porch, running to various locations and catching the ball before it could roll off the porch and bounce. Our houses had front porches over driveways that led to garages underneath. The front edge of the porch was guarded by a wrought iron metal railing that had room for the spaldeen to roll freely under. The porch ball player stood on the driveway below the porch, tossed the spaldeen up over the railing, causing the ball the land on the porch.

While the ball was bouncing on and rolling around the porch, the player ran up the driveway toward the sidewalk and street. His goal was to reach location(s) of his choice, and run back in time to catch the ball before it fell off the porch and bounced on the driveway below. Points were based on distance, something like 1 pt for reaching the sidewalk, 2 for touching the street tree, 5 for the tree across the street, 10 pts for the Stop sign on the corner, you get the idea. Sometimes you’d run to, for example, the tree, then come back below the porch and realize you had more time, so you’d gamble and run to another spot so as to add more points. Porchball combined 1) dexterity for carefully tossing the ball into the porch so that it bounced at odd angles and stayed up for a long time, 2) running speed to reach more distant locations, and 3) agility to turn around quickly and head back. Players took turns. The first person to the agreed goal number of points won.

Another game was a volleyball-like and had a name that changed according to the highest score any group had reached. A group of players formed a circle the street; any number could play. To begin, someone tossed the spaldeen in the air, and after it came down and bounced, anyone could hit it with their hand back into the air. That was #1, as the group would call out aloud. This was repeated to get #2, then #3, etc. This bounce-hit cycle continued unbroken until no one was able to hit the ball back into the air before it bounced more than once. Inevitably after awhile someone would hit the ball high/far so as to create challenging/exciting chases. I seem to recall the highest score we ever got was 702.