In Washington Heights we…

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In Washington Heights we used the Spaldeens… don’t remember the pinkys which, based on the discussion here, sound like basically the same sort of ball. We did have a Pink ball that was made of a different material than the spaldeen… it was a foam rubber ball… heavier, lots of bounce, but the grip of the soft rubber foam on the ground made it have “unpredictable” bouncing behaviors. We didn’t use those much, I don’t think, we used the spaldeens. Anyone else remember the Pink foam rubber balls I am refering to?

I grew up in South Philly,…

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I grew up in South Philly, in the 70s/early 80s … I STILL HAVE A PIMPLE BALL !!! I kept it knowing that one day, people all over would be looking for one — wish we could still buy em. I remember learning ‘Chink’ on the corners. We simply called it ‘Chink’ and it was the most simple, fun, yet competitive games ANYWHERE !! We played it on the corner, and we played to 11, or 21 if you played doubles and allowed ‘slams’ – meaning the ball could go PAST the curb and into the street, provided there wasn’t a parked car in front of that curb. My memories from the neighborhood also included: – Halfball (of course) – Handball – Running the Bases – ‘Atlantic City’ — which was a variation of Chink AND Running the Bases – very fun game – Jailbreak (surprised I haven’t seen this mentioned elsewhere – you had teams of people and you had to ‘free’ the person in ‘jail’ — which was someone’s front step – you would grab the railing, yell ‘jailbreak’ and all your teammates could leave jail. If you got caught by the other team, you were ‘dragged’ into jail. We usually had a member from each team ‘guarding’ the jail area!) – Wireball – Stepball – Fastball (a variation of stickball/halfball where you pitched a tennis ball into a ‘strike box’ painted on a wall and played with out and runs rules similar to halfball) – Wall/Suicide (simply throwing the ball against the wall, and having someone catch it – if you missed it you had to run to the wall and touch it and yell ‘Wall/Suicide’ before someone picked up your missed ball and BEANED it at your ass! – Dodge ball (played with the big red ball!) – Street football (we actually had an entire street block spray painted with yard line markers, logos, out of bounds markers, end zones, etc!) I’m sure there were plenty of others but this is all I can think of right now !!!

Hello. My name is Janet…

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Hello. My name is Janet and I’m an activity coordinator at an Assisted Living home. Thursday will be sharing stories about our fathers. I wanted to try this out and make sure this message when through before I tell my participants about it. Testing–one, two.

I played stickball since…

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I played stickball since I was about 7 yrs old. That was in 1942. I played in Manhatten on 17th street between 8th and 9th ave. We diddn’t use the sewers for bases, being tough to slide over when necessary. 1st and 3rd base were on the sidewalk anyway. We used buildings for for foul lines. You could take as many pitches as you liked, but only got 1 swing. We always played games on Sunday as there were hardly any cars parked on the street in those days. We always played teams from different Neighborhoods and always for money. During the week we just had guys get up and hit, if you caught a fly you got up till someone replaced you. We also had a playground on the street, called Kelly Playground. We played ” against the wall” where you bounced the ball off the handball court and the batter swung after 1 bounce.We play with 3 players, a pitcher ,a batter and 1 outfielder. There was a tenement house wall above the handball court so you didn’t lose the ball. if you hit the wall and bounced between the wall and short line it was a single, between the short and long line a double, between the long line and the asphalt a triple. Anything on the asphalt was a homer.The 2 defensemen could field the ball and you were out if it was caught. 1 out per player, then you rotated to the bat. usually 10 runs was a winner. There was 1 more variation. Fast pitch. you stood against the parkhouse wall, that was the backstop. The pitcher fired the ball like a baseball pitcher, we had a box drawn on the wall to determine the strike zone. 2 fielders beside the pitcher, and as many bounes the ball made detrmined the amount of bases you got.

When I was young we played…

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When I was young we played with a pinkie ball against the wall and we called it Russian handball. Throwing it up and bouncing once, then twice, then clapping once and bounce, then clapping twice and bounce then under you leg against the wall etc.. There was a specific order to do this in and I cannot remember it for the life of me. I am a teacher and want to teach my students this game, but noone seems to know the rules. Anyone out there remember playing this?

I grew up in the Longwood…

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I grew up in the Longwood section of the Bronx back in the 70’s and early 80’s. During that time there was no such thing as a “playground” (at least not in that part of The Bronx.) Instead, we had school yards, abandoned lots full of bricks still there from when apartment buildings were knocked down and abandoned buildings. We made the best of what we had and turned everything around us into our own playground. Instead of going to a pool, we soaked ourselves in pump water. Yes, you may see it as poverty, which it was. To me, it is beautiful childhood memories, that I would not trade for anything in the world.

Heck, Spaldeens and other…

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Heck, Spaldeens and other rubber balls were good only for day games. At night, we used to stuff those waxed milk containers (remember, those now obsolete quart cartons with the pull-up spout for pouring?) with newspapers and use them for balls–but ONLY at night! We’d play stickball on the sidewalk, and home play was right next to the lamppost to give the batters some light. We couldn’t use a rubber ball at night because the fielders had difficulty seeing it, causing the batting team to stay up forever. We’d stuff those milk containers with paper and press down on them until they were the size of a softball. The only problem was that the milk carton didn’t last long from the whacking; and every ten minutes, somebody had to go into a garage can for another one, rip off its top, and stuff it again. Creating new balls for the game was an all night affair. By the ninth inning, the whole sidewalk was littered with milk cartons and newspapers. Oh, well, we kept the janitors and sanitation workers busy anyway.