Here’s a rhyme I picked up somewhere: Blue bells, cockel shells, easy ivy over, I met by boyfriend at the candy store He bought me candy, he bought me cake, He brought me home with a tummy-ache… Mama, mama, I’m so sick, Call a doctor, quick quick quick! Doctor, Doctor, will I die? Count to five and you be all right. 1 2 3 4 5 I’m alive!
The museums were a mecca for truants. It was the only place where you wouldn’t get questioned by security. they always thought you were with a class trip. Meet up with your crew on a cold day, when your funds were low. Truant officers were waiting for you at the cheap action movie theaters on 42nd. Spoof on the art pieces, imagine yourself from far away places. Good fun. The museum of natural history, art, in Manhattan and the one in Brooklyn. Guggenheim (if you could afford it) horticulture gardens, whatever (I can’t remember them all), people always seemed to smile at you when they saw you in those places. I guess they thought it was great that you took an interest in the “finer things in life”. Actually, in spite of myself, I did take a liking to museums for the rest of my life.
Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve been back to this site. I remember all of the above. The games, the streets, and the theaters. We lived across the street from the Forsythe Street Park. Does anyone remember the bike store on Forsythe Street just pass Delancy? You could rent a bike for 25 cents an hour. Of course in those days 1950’s that was considered a lot of money. I ran many a bike into the brick wall in the park. Got lots of scars to show for it. Do you remember that Pickle store on Hester Street? I went to P.S.42 and on our walk home we would stop and buy a pickle. You had to point to the one you wanted and the man would fish it out. The smell of a pickle, even now, brings those days right back to me. And the knishes. One of my favorite foods. What I would do now for a knish. Haven’t had one in years. I live in a state that doesn’t even know what a ‘knish’ is. Only those of us born and raised in New York know what these are. How about the Academy of Music on 14th Street, Manhattan? When Rock n Roll started, we could not wait to see all the new rocking stars. We saw them before they became a household name.
I’m doing a project is Language arts, where we are re-discovering old games and putting them in a historical park where visitors can play with them. I have been searching all over the internet and I cant find anything on the history of jacks. I’m in desperate need of help, the project is due next week. PLEASE PLEASE if anyone can help me e-mail me at . Thank you!!
In central Indiana everyone I knew played the game standing up and tossing marbles at their opponents marbles (this is mid sixties). This was usually in a large area like a school playground. Usually with glass hoggers or steelies (ball bearings of different sizes). Usually the bigger type because the field was so large. Whomever hit the other’s marble first would usually keep it. I don’t remember a name for this but am sure there was another besides just marbles. I still have a can of mine as well and am teaching my little boy how to play here in Japan! He’s getting good. If anyone knows the name of the standing game of marbles played in a field please refresh my memory.
That’s pretty much the way we played stickball. Because there were cars parked in the street the court was narrow, consequently we had two infielders in tandum and the rest played beyond second. Bouncing the ball to hit was ok but the street was cobble stone in the early fifties and the ball may not bounce straight so most guys hit it on the fly. If you caught the ball out of a tree it was an out. Great fun thinking you had it as you watched it make its way down only to loose it at the last second.