Love this site! I grew…
Love this site! I grew up in Astoria, very familiar with “Last Licks” and “Chips on the Ball”. The home team, or team batting in the bottom of the inning was the team who got “Last licks”. “Chips on the Ball” meant, if the ball was lost or split ( Spaldings had way of splitting at the seams) the person who hit it had to give the guy who brought the ball money to buy a new one.
Gary, I grew up in Howard…
Gary, I grew up in Howard Beach , Queens and although 12 years your senior, even “back then” we used the term ‘chips on the ball’. Which indictaed the owner of the ball expected to be re-imbumbursed or have the ball replaced by anyone who caused it be lost (sewer, roof top), or broken. And I agree with your definition of “last licks”. Don’t see why anything one of the Yankee announcers (corporate shills) say should bother you. The default is that they’re wrong. I’ve been a Yankee fan since 1956 and this is the worst crew (by far) they’ve ever had.
First I’d like to thank this…
First I’d like to thank this site. I was startled at my job that no one who I eat lunch with was familiar with the expression “chips on the ball” even though a few are my contemporaries (I’m 43), and they insisted “it must have been a Mineola thing.” I proved them wrong via your site. I am now seeking to clear up something that bothered me a lot this baseball season–hearing Yankee announcer Michael Kay referring to the 9th inning as being “last licks” for both teams. My childhood interpretation from our neighborhood was that ONLY the home team could get “last licks”, because they were the last to have an opportunity to bat. Indeed, in our neighborhood stickball contests, the ONLY advantage of being designated the home team was that you had last licks and the other team didn’t. What say you? Please reply either publicly or privately. Gary
It was in 8th grade in 1974….
It was in 8th grade in 1974. His name was Emil and he had green eyes and curly dark blond hair. We had been flirting with each other for 2 months, walking each other to class. He gave me butterflies in my stomach and I thought I loved him. At the end of the semester, we were standing in the stairwell and he called me his girl and lifted my chin to his and softly kissed me on the lips. It was innocent and pure and sweet.
We used to play a game with…
We used to play a game with sticks or rulers laid out like a ladder oalong the ground. You had to run along it jumping over all the sticks. As the game progressed the sticks were spread out further so that jumping them became more challenging. By the end you had to use a lot of speed, strength and timing to get through without knocking any sticks. Did anyone else play this and can thery remember more detail about how it worked. I remember playing this lots when I was 12 or 14 with friends and having lots of fun. It was great exercise too.
trying to remember how to…
trying to remember how to play “school”. i know 3rd grade we jumped in from the back side. one of the grades we had to run through. one was jumping on one foot. 11 and 12th it seems we started out doing blue bells or someting and then they twirled as fast as they could and we jumped to 12 and had to get back out to finish. all the kids in out nieghborhood played this game, it was a blast and i wanted to teach it to my kids.
Anyone out there know St….
hi, dennis dawkins a’am looking…
hi, dennis dawkins a’am looking for someone to promote my game,name makeyortakey,we play as kids, game of marbols to pass the time away,i have copyrights to my game,like to have it on CD-RUM,artcade,the reason we had to stop because of a candydrop that came out,got kids confuse,so they cut that back,i got the ideal when i was in the frist grade,went to school whit a hold shock of marbols,brough ten back home,i’am 46,building my backpouch,97,i found 100 marbols,me and my dogs that when i wrote a petton,anybody wont my rules,or pormote,my game email, dennis dawkins.
Hey, Loved playing Cracktop…
Hey, Loved playing Cracktop as a kid growing up in the Ravenswood projects on 21 st. and 35 ave. in Astoria It involved the use of small wooden tops. We would get in a circle and spin all of our tops at the same time. The first top to come to a stop on it’s side was the top that was put in the middle of our circle. Then each of us in turn would try to “Crack” the top in the middle by hitting it with our top as hard as we could as we threw it to spin it. If you hit the top in the middle on your throw and your top kept spinning, you were good till next turn. If you hit the top or missed and your top did not spin, it was your turn in the middle. But if you missed the top in the middle, as your top was spinning you could pick it up in the palm of your hand ( the top had to remain spinning all the while ) and drop it on the top in the middle, if yours kept spinning after that, you were good to go. We had hours of fun playing this game and we became quite adept at hitting and even Cracking the tops in the middle. We would show off the Paint of other tops that would rub off on ours after hitting them. We also had a name for hitting the top in the middle. I have no freakin idea where it came from, but we called it a ” Kosky ” LOL I have no clue what that means, but when we hit the top in the middle it was called a Kosky! Hope this brings back some good memories, it does for me.