Hooray for anything that can pepetuate the sound of roller skates! My scooter was built for me by my next-door-neighbor, Harry Schwartz, who used making it, I think, as a diversion from studying for the PA bar exam. He even painted it pink for me. Harry, if you’re out there, I am still grateful.Nobody built anything for me as fun as that scooter!
How can you talk snow and not mention Flexible Flyers?! Lying on your belly, feet extended so as to hook onto the sled behind you to create great sled trains…. setting up sledding courses, down the breezeway between two houses, left on the common drive, and right, down our house driveway and into our garage…. Those were the days when it snowed real snow… not this new stuff that you can only negotiate on big plastic disks that look like colorful, oversized trashcan lids…. And how ’bout cafeteria tray sledding/skiing?! Ah… winter……
I’m Freddie Markowitz’ wife, Jan. He played for the Chieftains in 1966-67. Freddie remembers Bob Felder, who gave him the nickname, “Clipper.” When the Chieftains played the Jewish All-Stars from Laurelton in a game that was riddled with rain and mud, many players didn’t show up that day, so some players from the Comets helped them out, such as Ben Walker and Jerry Wiggins. (Actually, Ben may have been a Chieftain; the memory doesn’t work as well as it used to. LOL)Freddie says, “The All-Stars were winning by a score of 20-0 at the end of the 4th quarter, so, being the ‘gentlemen’ that they were, they offered us a fifth quarter to give us a chance to score. With less than 5 minutes to go in that game, the player who I was up against gave me a forearm, sending my face mask downward, and breaking my nose. Our coach, Max Seleznow, took one look at me and saw two black eyes. Max wanted me to sit down, but I insisted on going back in. He sent me in as a middle linebacker instead of a tackle. Ben and Jerry (not to be confused with those two rich ripoff ice cream guys), two of the toughest and nicest black guys I ever knew, called a huddle. Jerry said,” They broke Brother Freddie’s nose; we’re gonna kick their a$$e$.” Our defense waited for the All-Stars to line up. As soon as the quarterback yelled “Set,” Jerry and Ben, along with the rest of the line, purposely went offside to avenge my broken nose. We never scored another point, but I think we won the fight! When that game ended, so did my short-lived football career. On the Chieftains, I either played center or right guard, next to Marvin Mevorah. Check out our website at www.bestweb.net/~spazjump. If Jerry, Ben, Bob Felder or Marvin are still alive and well, I’d love to hear from all of them. Man, those were the days…!
My husband, Freddie Markowitz, played for the Chieftans. I’m not sure what the years were, but he graduated from Springfield Gardens HS in 1968. He was talking about Ira’s brother, Marvin, just last night. This is meant to be that I found this site. I was doing a search on a bulletin board for Rochdale Village and I found this. If anyone would like to get in touch with Freddie, please feel free to e-mail him as he would love to hear from old friends since he is now disabled.
Isn’t the internet great ?? My buddy and I were playing with his two year old daughter in Florida and asked his wife what she called a “slide” when she was young. My friend and I are from New Jersey and our parents grew up in the Bronx & Brooklyn. We always called it a “sliding pond” (although I must confess, I always thought that the word was “pon” … because everyone knows that a “pond” is water, y’know, like a lake)Anyway, his wife is from Maryland and never heard of a sliding pond. We immediately hit the ‘net & BINGO…..we knew that we were not alone. It’s a SLIDING POND !!! My lasting memory is the metal stairs with the name of the manufacturer in Litchfield, Michigan (I think). Litchfield is kinda like a name I know, so it stuck with me. Sliding ponds do burn your ass, though…..so give me a new water slide anyday now !!!!
in the bensonhurst section of brooklyn in and around seth low jhs, stoop ball was played as described,and a different game when the street was clear and we could really blast the ball, we played single,double , triple…but stoop ball was king, one bounce 5 pts, on a fly ten, pointer 100, and we had a stoop that if u hit the pointer above the top step, which was really the door sill on the top step, it was maybe 1 inch high, so if u hit it just right…500 points, but if you were just a hair high on it, u would hit the door, and thats an “out”. next person would go.
Mine was one of the families that moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island when the Verrazano Bridge was completed in the mid 60’s. Many of the Brooklyn customs of games, pranks, etc. came along with us to Staten Island. Many of the games were altered to fit into the country-like atmosphere of the Island at that time. Ringaleavio was played in the woods, for example. Any Staten Islander’s out there? I grew up in Oakwood Heights and went to St. Charles Elementary School and Mon.Farrell High School. I live in Massachusetts now.