I grew up near Bensonhurst–Dahill…

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I grew up near Bensonhurst–Dahill Road near Kings Highway–in the 50’s, and I definitely remember “Statues” as well as a variation called “Red Light, Green Light.” The person who was “it” would shout “Red light, green light, 1-2-3,” and everyone would move toward her as quickly as they could. Then she’d shout “RED LIGHT!” and everyone would have to stop and stand completely still. Anyone caught moving a muscle by even a millimeter was out. The first person to tag the leader took over for the next game.

Pete, Ron Heller mentions…

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Pete, Ron Heller mentions Chinese handball in a post of his in the ‘Running Around’ section. We used to play it in Queens, too, of course. Like regular handball, except the ball had to bounce once instead of everything being on the fly. As kids, we probably played more Chinese than regular handball, which was more for the older guys. We’d start to get more into regular handball as we reached HS age.

How about potatoe guns….

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How about potatoe guns. This was a metal gun in which you stuck the end of the gun into a hard potatoe which loaded a little potatoe plug into the gun (About the size of a tic tac). Pull the trigger and pow. That thing really hurt when you got hit. I believe they finally outlawed that gun. Too dangerous for little kids.

In the mid to late 1940’s…

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In the mid to late 1940’s a Spaldeen cost $.19 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I don’t remember Pensie Pinkies – did they come along in the 50’s? Three sewers was a home run. In the 30’s the “big guys” used to play great stick ball games but that stopped when they went to WWII and rubber balls were not avaialable. While most of the guys came back, they went on to other pursuits after the war. Our games were fun, but they never seemed, in my mind, to match-up with those the “big guys” played.

Pete,Sunnyside,Queens 1951-58…

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Pete,Sunnyside,Queens 1951-58 Two people stood on the edge of a sidewalk box facing each other,each having one box in front of them.On the line between the two boxes a “GOOD HUMOR,Popcicle” stick was placed at right angle to and on the line between the two boxes.The mission was to hit the stick and move it towards and at long last over the line at the edge of your opponent’s box.I don’t recall any points just win or lose. I came to this site via N.Y.TIMES story looking for CHINESE HANDBALL. I see ACE-KING-QUEEN which was the positions of the boxes but did not find anything. Any help anyone???

In Queens in the 60’s, we…

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In Queens in the 60’s, we played the five box version of boxball described above. Two players stood with five boxes between them; you would first bounce it once in the box closest to your opponent (your fifth box), and then once in each of your fourth and fifth boxes, and so on. I’m not quite sure if I remember the ping-pong style of two box that Connie describes above. We didn’t play hit the stick, but I do remember playing hit the penny. I think you scored one point if you hit the penny, and two if you flipped it. Players stood with two boxes between them, and put the penny or other coin on the crack between the two boxes. We didn’t like to use nickels because they were heavy and more difficult to flip. :^) This was a mostly a game for younger kids, whereas I remember still playing boxball into early adolescence, when we weren’t playing wiffle ball or stick ball or just hanging out. Another favorite game of childhood was ring-o-levio, which I played from early childhood right through high school. Those later HS games were neighborhood-wide.

i remember it was rumored…

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i remember it was rumored back in the 70s that a kid from another neighborhood was hit by a ConED truck while playing stickball…noone knew who or where…but for years thereafter, every time a ConEd truck came down our street (and delayed our game)the whole gang of us would howl “BOOOOOOO CONNNNNNEEEEEDDDDDD” and each one after the other bang on the side of the truck as it drove by…then, like nothing had happened, play would resume…