I am originally from the…

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I am originally from the Morris Park section of Da Bronx. We played in a playground called Loretto Park. The park was between Morris Park Ave and Van Ness, and Haight & Tomlinson Avenues, The “parkie” (attendant) was a woman we called Polly. If you were from the Bronx it was a sliding pond, a see-saw, and a spaldeen. Nothing else would do. The City of New York even painted a skully court in the park for the young kids to play on…us older kids played it in the street. I can remember being the first kid in the park after lunch. The sliding pond was about 200 degrees in the sun, and all you wore were shorts, you’s sit on that hot stainless steel board and burn you freakin butt….but it was fun, and no one cared less. There were no rubber mats at the end, or sand pits, you just landed on blacktop and took the abuse like a man. It was fun in those days.

As a Brooklyn and Queens…

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As a Brooklyn and Queens kid of the 50’s, I have to cast a vote for the one and only ball that any repected kid would use in my neighborhoods. You bought a Spaldeen (At Uncle Milty’s Candy Store). Period. That other ball would be like using some artsy fartsy chocolate syrup for an egg cream instead of U-Bet. And nobody bought a stickball bat. I couldn’t believe when they started selling them at the local stores!

Just to let know that our…

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Just to let know that our tour to Florida is all set to leave New York on Dec. 10 and return Dec. 13th. I will inform you later on players and teams etc. later. Please call me at 212-760-8617. Thank you very much in advance. Jit Singh

The ONLY acceptable, official…

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The ONLY acceptable, official ball to use in my neighborhood in da Bronx to play stickball, punchball, stoopball etc. was the GREAT Spaldeen. We use to pick up two ball at once, hold them at about eye level then let them drop to see which one bounced higher. We’d do this until the candy store owner screamed “Hey you kids..stop makin’ my balls dirty”. Then we’d have to make a quick choice and buy it.

It’s that crazy hula hooping…

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It’s that crazy hula hooping hippie from Oklahoma (gulp! Will I ever graduate and move?) I went over to Online sports and found that they, like all other hula hoop importers, discriminate against tall (er) people. HHHippie is not a tall adult. So how do the over 4 footers hoop? With black PVC hose. This stuff is used for inground sprinkler systems and is available at most D-I-Y type stores. A roll of 100 feet costs about $10-15 here. I get 10 hoops out of a roll, factoring in goof-ups. I use the 1 inch diameter hose, although huskier folks have been known to use 1 and 1/2 inch. Get connectors, too. the internal types are all that will work. The kind with “fish gill” threading rather than regular pipe threading are harder to assemble, but stay together better. ACE hardware sells a pvc cutter which makes nice clean cuts very easily. It’s an $8 tool. Purple primer, PVC cement and gaffers or duct tape round out your supplies. Cut the pipe to your preferred length, prime and cement the hose insert the connectors and PUSH! Seal the gap with tape. I hold the hose in a circle and stand it on its end. A hoop that comes to my chin is almost perfect. It is a bit on the heavy side, and therefore spins at a slower rate than the lightweight toys, but you can walk and even dance while hooping. Robyn, the Hula Hooping Hippie

The numbers in the middle…

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The numbers in the middle can have one of 2 meanings. Either they can be the amount of boxes that someone will advance if they knock you out of the dead zone or they can mean how many turns you lose while in the dead zone. In our neighborhood we didn’t put the numbers in the middle at all but just had the player lose 3 turns if he or she got stuck in the middle. I’m sure the moderator of the forum (“Masta Blasta”) would frown at such a basic approach, however, it worked for us. You might even combine the two (you lose 3 or so turns unless someone knocks you out – and then they get advance x boxes).

I grew up in the Bronx,…

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I grew up in the Bronx, and learned to play all sorts of games with a Spaldeen.(I am a 49 year old woman who lived on Hoe Avenue, between Aldus Street and 163rd (Bruckner Blvd. from 1958-1963). Howevever, when it came to box baseball, we always tried to use a cheaper, therefore softer ball. This enabled us to use our knuckles to make an indentation on the ball, and hopefully cause it to curve, or dive away from the “batter”.I also played the three box version, where you pitched it to the box in front of the batter, they had to hit it back to the box in front of you, and if you didn’t catch it on a fly it was a single, double, triple or home run, depending on how many times it bounced. One ball and one friend, or just one ball, by yourself,and hours could be passed so easily! By the way, what we called “roofing” a ball was standing on the sidewalk in front of the building and seeing who could throw it up onto the roof! Five stories was as high as I could throw it onto the roof, but then, there were only five story walkup buildings on my block. We always had a kid stationed on the roof to throw the one and only ball we had among us back to us on the sidewalk.