In Washington Heights (Dyckman…
In Washington Heights (Dyckman area) we called it “Manhunt”. But it was basically the same game, with one team chasing the other and placing them in “base”. We did not allow running into basements, buildings or passing the corners on either side of the block. There was always someone guarding the base. I remember running with a car (running alongside of it as low as possible) and then pouncing on the base and saving as many of my teammates as possible. Also for a period of time we could kick the lamppost on our block and the lights would go off and the other team couldn’t see what was going on for about 8-9 minutes. Those were the days (late 80’s). We usually played during the summertime and usually till about 11:30 pm (never during the day either! Too hot!)and then just lay on top of a car and talk the night away.
When we played it is was…
I’m 25 years old from Washington…
I’m 25 years old from Washington Heights. But, while my friends and I were growing up we played Chinese handball (we have actually passed it down to the younger kids that are currently growing up). We had various forms of the game where the “Ace” could decide what the rules of the game were going to be. Usually when the best players were around we played “killer serve” (where you could serve as you pleased as long as you didn’t pass the first block of cement and the last block of cement), with stealing (you couldn’t step into another player’s box) and hitting the ball three times (if you wanted to).
I grew up in the Bronx too…
Most of the above songs are…
Most of the above songs are very familiar. Now I have a song that I have been trying to find the lyrics to for months. My mother (91 years old) used to sing it to my sons. I don’t know all the lyrics and would love any help anyone can give. If it is at all familiar, please send anything you know to me at It is a song made up of product names from the 1920’s and starts, “Oh Castoria cures the measles It is the best in town.” Much further along is something about Purina and “Watch Lillian Russell wrestle with a pack of…..” Thanks for any help you can give.
I grew up in the Bronx too…
The game called “pinners”…
The game called “pinners” above was a game we called “off the point” in the Bronx. We also played the other version,”off the wall” but you didn’t get a home run unless the ball hit the building across the street. You could still get an out by catching the ball off the building before it bounced on the ground. There were so many other great games. All you needed was a spaldeen and one other kid.
I used to play Skully as…
I used to play Skully as a kid in Queens; there was a board painted on the schoolyard blacktop, but I don’t remember exactly how it was laid out. What I remember most about skully was making the pieces. We used to tie washer magnets onto the end of a piece of string to fish the bottle caps out of old coke bottle vending machines, and then melt broken Crayola crayons into them under high intensity lamps and let them harden in order to give them some weight. A good color pattern was considered cool. :^)