HI, YOU’ALL, It’s 3;20 am and I’m in the middle of my shift. Somewhere I was divinely guided to this site and I have enjoyed every minute. It’s all good as my grandchildren would say. Born in 1944 I can relate to this wonderful site and I’ll be back, when I get home to my own computer. Please keep this going. Thank you for you. In friendship, Sandy
Remember when Michael Corleone met Apollonia? At Blanche’s in the East Village, me and my young adult crew were playing pool drinking Rolling Rocks and listening to “Enjoy Yourself-It’s Later Than You Think” on the jukebox for the fiftieth time. A particularly rowdy Brit came in yelling about how lousy Americans played pool and how we sucked at so many things. My friends were from all over the world, we were just residents of that neighborhood, and didn’t appreciate idiots invading our space with insults. Instead of taking him to the side walk and beating his #@$, the guys decided to beat him at pool. Of course the guy turned out to be a hustler when money came into play. He was winning and rubbing it pitylessly into our faces; he was even rude to we women-folk. Since no one was beating him at pool, the logical alternative was to just beat his @#!. I began to look around the bar to see if there was someone who he hadn’t played that would be brave enough to take him on. One stranger sitting at the bar had a kind of young Christopher Walken quality, had been staring at me all night. I approached him and simply said: “Look handsome, you’ve been jocking me all night…. and I just need to know one thing. Can you play pool?” He responded: “I play alright” I replied, “You’ve got to do better than alright.” If you beat this @#!hole at a game and save face for our people, I will give you the biggest juiciest kiss that the guys in here could only wish for.. Do you think you’re up for the challenge? Long story short, he beat that lowlife like a step-child and the bar went up in an uproar. I jumped into my hero’s arms and when we kissed, I was hit by “the thunderbolt”. When he let me go I couldn’t speak, I could barely stand, I looked at him and it was like Adam and Eve seeing each other in the nude for the first time. It was overwhelming. He had that effect on me for years during our off- and-on relationship. We were not particularly compatible but we had a paralyzing effect on one another. Once, after I hadn’t seen him in years, he came to visit me in Paris and we spent the evening in Rue St. Jacques studio embraced, staring out at the majestic columns of the cathedral on St. Genvieve. I dated guys who looked like him to try and get that same effect, but only that wild-eyed boy from Jersey who saved we Americans could give me that “Rush.” H.M. was and will always be my “Thunderbolt”.
MY FIRST INTELLECTUAL ROMANCE T Ragos was the first guy I’d ever dated of any race who wasn’t a jock, wasn’t good looking, none of my girlfriends wanted him, had a face-full of pot marks… but I was crazy about him. He was the first guy who recited poetry. We would walk for miles along the West river talking about the many places we would travel when we were old enough to get our passports on our own. We spent hours in Central Park watching children in the playground, discussing the merits of early Bowie, Laura Nyro, The Dead Kennedys, Was not Was, Lil Green (a female blues singer from the twenties). He knew everything I knew and our interests were so similar. We were not of the same race, we were not of the same teen social status (I had my choice of jocks and friends of all races and monetary status- he got beat up and ignored) I don’t know what pulled me to him. A year later I was no longer feeling it, and started dating jocks again. But for a brief moment, I had an intellectual romance.
Here are a couple I didn’t see above: Glory, Glory Hallaleua (sp?), Teacher hit me with a ruler shot her through the floor with a loaded 44 and she don’t teach no more! My eyes have seen the glory of the burnin’ of the school we have tortured all the teachers we have broken all the rules … Look at [insert dorky kid’s name here] doin’ it, doin’ it pickin his nose and chewin’ it, chewin’ it Thinks it’s candy but it’s not It’s a snot with a cherry on top dumb joke: Ask “What are you eating under there?” When the kid asks, “Under where?” You say, “Eeeww, you’re eating underwear!!”
Orange County, Calif., mid-70s. Played a game we called Butts Up, with the same consequences for the loser as the Asses Up described on this site. The rules: anywhere from 3 to 20 guys would stand 10 to 15 feet from a garage door or school wall. Someone would throw a tennis ball against the wall and anyone could pick it up, but you were only allowed to use one hand. If you dropped the ball or if the ball hit any part of your body and then hit the ground, you had to run and touch the garage/wall before someone else picked up the ball and winged it at you. If you made it to the wall without getting hit, you were safe. If you got hit, you had one point against you. Three points, and you were Butts Up. Loser would kneel down, facing wall with butt sticking up. Rest of players would line up and fire the ball at your rear. Worst part was if you were playing at recess during school — five guys may be playing, but as soon as someone was Butts Up, 30 guys lined up for target practice. In addition to the big three sports, we also played a lot of Over the Line (tons of variations) and basketball games like Around the World, HORSE and Poison.
Here’s one I picked up at summer camp: In Derby Town in Derby Town The streets are made of glass Once you turn the corner You’ll fall right on your {Chorus} Hocus pocus, crickety-crocus, hum dum diddly-eye, Once you’re been to Derby Town You’ll feel the same as I. In Derby Town in Derby Town Two men were digging a ditch One’s the son of a lawyer The other’s the son of a {Chorus} In Derby Town in Derby Town Two men were digging a well One went to heaven The other went to {Chorus} I especially like the second verse!
No one here has really described the game “statues” and I was wondering if it’s the same game I knew. I grew up in Chicago in the 60’s and the girls in my neighborhood played a game called “statue maker.” I don’t know who taught us it (one of our moms?)or how we learned it, but it was one of our favorites. From what I remember, it went something like this: You needed at least 5 or 6 girls in order to play. One girl played the part of the “statue maker” and the other was the “customer.” The statue maker would spin the other girls around and around by the arm and when she let go, the girl would have to freeze in whatever position she landed in. (We used to have the most hilarity with this … crazy positions that you remain in!) Then the statue maker would walk the customer by each girl, trying to “sell” the merits of each statue. The customer would eventually pick one of the statues by tapping her. This brought her to life and then she would chase the customer around and around. My memory is fuzzy at what happens after this point, but I think the freed statue then becomes the customer and repeats the same. Does this ring a bell with anyone? I’m curious if this is a similar version to what you all played in New York?
When I was between, say, 11 and 15, we used to play a lot of boy/girl games, like Spin the Bottle, but also Seven Minutes in Heaven, RCK, and Trust Me. I came of age in the 70s in Brooklyn and still live in Brooklyn. RCK was played in the dark, usually at home when your parents were out. You would feel around in the dark and touch a person and if he/she didn’t run, you’d kiss them. Seven Minutes in Heaven is exactly how it sounds, provided you were in heaven with the one you wanted to be with. I forget how you hooked up with the person you were to spend seven minutes with. Trust Me was the funniest one, because a guy would place his hand way down on your leg and work his way up and ask you if you trusted him and he proceeded. If you were shy or didn’t know the guy well, you’d stop him at your thigh, if you liked him he would work his way up to your breast and then you would have been officially “felt up.” (I hope I’m not being too graphic. I know this is PG.) In those days guys rarely made a pit stop you know where. Did anyone else play these games or was I just hanging out with the wrong crowd?