In Bayside, Queens, during the early 1950s, there was a game played at PS 41. It was called “double wall” and was a variant of stickball. Two players, batter and pitcher, and the batter had to hit a ball that bounced between the two walls. The more the better. We also played punchball, and I always wondered if this game originated, or was popularized during WWII, with limited space/only one spaldeen required. Bob
Layout of this fancy is you have 5 sets of 2 with 2 jacks in the center Sweep the parlor sweep it clean Sweep it so no dust can be seen Move in a chair Sweep it there Move in a table if you’re able Move in a couch Don’t say ouch Move in a lamp Don’t get a cramp Sweep all around Pick it all up and Put it all down (has to stay in a clump)
I’m new to this site. My 6th grade class will learn “jacks” among other historical cames for a history day of games through the ages. Can anyone write down the whole fancy? I remember “Sweep the parlor sweep it clean, so no dust can be seen. Pick up a jack, move it back… but what is the rest of this fancy? This site has awakened some very lost rhymes and rules. Anyone out there can help … my e-mail is attached. I learned to play at Wawokiye
Growing up in South Philly, the pimple ball was indispensible. You couldn’t play the street games without it: Stickball (aka Fastball), Halfball, Hit the Penny, Chink, Wallball, Wireball, Babies in the Air. I find it difficult to explain to my kids just what a pimple ball was. I wish I had saved one to show them. The thing I found most interesting about it was when you pressed your index finger hard on the top of the ball and throw it hard releasing it so that it’s trajectory was toward the ground, it would almost float as it sped toward it’s target. I’ve seen guys throw them almost the length of a city block where the ball made the entire trip 6 inches off the ground.
I have been working in daycare programs for the past several years and have discovered that children (and teenagers)love marble games of any kind! We play some I found in books, others that were learned from a museum curator and some that children invented. If you need games, or would like to share ones you have played, send me email at
My older brother and I used to take a bus up Nostrand Avenue every Saturday and go to the Flatbush boys club. This was in the late 50’s, early 60’s. I remember the ping pong, pin bowling, chess in the library, swimming (in the nude). There used to be a little greasy spoon restaurant where you got a hamburger, coke and french fries for $.50. Very good memories.
I never knew that there was such a website as this. THIS IS GREAT. As a girl growing up in Washington D.C., if you didn’t know how to jump double dutch, you stayed your behind inside. Now I have a daughter of my own who I homeschool so I’m am trying to teach her double dutch. Hard with just the two of us girls, so I am also now teaching my two sons. (But they are double-handed right now.) At one point I was even able to jump double-handed rope (it’s all about the rythm).