One time we flooded my friends kitchen floor with and put some palmolive on it to make it extra slippery. we played slip and slide until her mom woke up. She wasn’t very happy when she realized the water had leaked into the basement. woops! oh yeah we also tried to have seances and hypnotize eachother. it was fantastic!!
0n April 29th and April 30th 2000 we had our 5th annual Florida oldtimers stickball tournament. It was held at Stickball Boulevard in North Miami. We had many members of the Stickball Hall of Fame playing such as George “Cherokee” Aviles, Henry “Papi” Caban, Ralph Naranjo, Warren “Wally” Rivera, Junior Rosario, Little Cherokee Ruiz, and Eduardio “Wally” Torres. We had enough ball players t o field 4 teams. Our oldest player was 78 years old by the name of Chickie Santiago. We had a great weekend.
I had been to the roller rinks in Brooklyn and Queens all of my life, folks showing off their savoire faire and the derby types that pluck you off like hockey players. But it was not until summer in the 80’s that I found sheer beauty in dance skating in Central Park. A girl from Michigan, Zee was very much like Madonna and was the first to befriend me at the park. I was in excellent shape due to bike messengering, and although I could always skate, skate, my move lacked finesse until she taught me how to define my moves in a small confine and express myself on wheels. The other regulars met after work and we were of all ages. My regular dance partner was Eddie, a smooth Latino who taught me the crazy 8’s around the cans and hustle turns all around him and the circle that we all flew around. It was the greatest release to flow with the music and the bodies. The guys demonstrating their strength by lifting and turning the ladies without missing beat, and the ladies showing their svelte physiques and grace. Water was the most important commodity in the park. I remember how we used to say to one another as we danced and sweated around the circle…”I’m sitting out the next one” but inevitably the next song would be a more crucial jam than the last. And we would keep on movin’. An older Italian gentleman was my slow jam partner. He saved my life once when he spotted me flying around the corner of 59th and 5th with a broken axle, he snatched me right out of the street into his arms and the safety of the corner. I did not realize I was so close to being history. I thanked and hugged the hero. I tried to get the beauty of a man and woman skating together to music across to a young Irish speed street hockey player. He lived for flying down 5th avenue backwards on skates. He could only relate to slolums and speed.
Hey, I’m 43, and I taught my kids how to throw and spin a top. I told them all about crack top. We used to decorate the tops of the top which made pretty designs when it spun. You couldn’t get too carried away with designing, because they were quite disposable. You guys put nails in your tops!? Hell! No wonder you were killing my tops! Well that makes me feel prouder that I cracked my share without any modifications. Na na na na na.
My grandmother and I used to frequent the essex market and she could makethe poorest cuts of meat and poultry taste better than any 5 star restaurant. My grandfather took us to the deli’s down there at least twice a month, and I finally learned how to share a pastrami on rye and fries with my sister when my grandfather forced me to eat an entire huge sandwich at the table alone for being greedy. My first apartment was on Rivington Street.I was an eighteen year old bike messenger, One of the few females who were. My neighbor above me was a counselor from Covenant house (she told me about the available apt.). Her boyfriend (he was my age, she was not) lived directly below me. Needless to say when they had a lover’s quarrel, they usually had it on my portion of neutral fire- escape. Drama Galore! When I moved into that apartment there was a huge demonic circle (as my neighbor called it)dead in the center of the studio apartment. I didn’t place a carpet over it nor try to erase it. My counselor/neighbor suggested we try to see if it was a portal to some parallel-dimension. She bought by phenol barbitol to aide in the transport. She was a rich girl from conneticut into recreational drug use, but me and her boyfriend grew up watching people like her invade our slums for this purpose. We knew that drugs for sport always ended up as another junkie statistic. Anyway I ended up with a boyfriend of my own (minus the drama) and the apartment worked out fine until I let some jealous friends watch it for me while I visited relatives in the poconos for a week. They tried to torch place and I got thrown out. My favorite chinese restaurant was located on Catherine Street between Henry and East Broadway. Every Wednesday this tiny place was filled with only New Yorkers. My favorite dish was chinese vegetables with rice noodles.
How about “Categories”? We drew a court on the ground similar to hopscotch (“potsy”) with two rows of rectangular boxes, 5 in one row, 5 in the other, and inside the boxes were different categories like girls, boys, cars, teachers, flowers, actors, actresses, and oh I forget the others. We rolled the ball up from the bottom left box and stepped into that first box (“Girls”) and picked up the ball from within the box. When we picked the ball up, we said, “Girls are such as…” and we’d say girls names, one for each box (Barbara, Susie, Mary,…) and bounce the ball once and step into each of the boxes in sequence from bottom left and up and over to the second row (no stepping on the lines!) until you get to the last box and then stepped out with one last name and bounce. On the second turn we rolled the ball from the bottom left row and rolled it up to the second category: “Boys”. Back then it was always, “Boys are such as: Paul, John, George, Ringo…” right?! The challenge came when you got to the second row, because if you were up to the last few boxes, you had to roll the ball up from the right column slowly enough to catch up to it by stepping quickly through all the other boxes from the left row and picking the ball up in the box you were up to. I think actresses was usually last and you only had to name one to step out.
Russia, Here is what I remember about Russia or Russian 7. “One” was you throw the ball against the wall and catch it (no bounces.) “Two” was you throw the ball against the wall and let it bounce once two times. Three: throw it against the wall and clap once and catch it three times. Four: throw the ball, roll your hands, catch it, four times. Five: the ball is thrown from under one leg five times. Six you bounce the ball and spell “R-u-s-s-i-a” and slap the ball and catch it without letting it bounce. The rest (and we played up to twelve) are not clear to me, but I recall throwing the ball up high against the wall, let it bounce as you jump over it and then chase it and catch it. Throw the ball up high and turn around once and catch it without bouncing. (Dizzying!!). And finally the last and hardest one was throwing it up against the wall, turn around once as you clap and catch it like twelve times and then go sit down for a while because you’re turning green!
Hmm, I forgot to type the rest of the way the the way Categories is played, sorry. When we picked the ball up, we said, “Girls are such as…” and you pick a girls name and bounce the ball once and step into each of the other boxes in sequence until you get to the last box and then step out. Back then it was always, “Boys are such as: Paul, John, George, Ringo…” right?!
How about “Categories?” Anyone remember that one? You drew a court on the ground similar to hopscotch (“potsy”) with two rows of rectangular boxes, 5 in one row, 5 in the other, and inside the boxes were different categories like girls, boys, cars, teachers, flowers, actors, actresses, and oh I forget the others. You roll the ball up from the bottom left box and step into the first box (girls) and pick up the ball from within the box. That was a real feat when you got to the second row, because if you were up to the last few boxes, you had to roll the ball slowly enough to catch up to it by stepping quickly through all the other boxes and picking the ball up in the box you were up to. If someone can remember any of the other three categories, I can send a drawing of the court to the webmaster and perhaps he can post it somewhere.