Streetplay Discussions
We use play a game called…
We use play a game called pinners. I don’t know where it got its name but it was a lot like stoopball. The batter would throw a ball at a decorative ledge on the side of a build. Fielders would stand in the street and try to catch the ball before it landed in the street. Past the curb on a fly and in front of the 1st player – base hit; double past the 1st player; triple if it hit the car across the street; home run if it landed across the street. Ground balls were an out. We played with 2 or more players and everyone batted. We played with a tennis ball or a pink ball.
I can remember my yellow…
I can remember my yellow hula hoop when I was growing up in Amityville Long Island in the late 1950’s, early 1960’s. My 3 year old, 6 year old and 17 year old nieces were playing “skip it” when I went back to LI this past June. I can still remember my first bike, too. How I wish my little boys had a childhood like mine.
Anyone remember Luna Park?…
Mick & Pez, You…
Mick & Pez, You guys have done a service for mankind (at least for Brooklynkind) with this website. I left Brooklyn (Bath Beach/Bensonhurst) almost 55 years ago and I still remember the joys of stickball, punchball, handball, Chinese handball, boxball, Chinese boxball, skully, land, ring-a-levio, three feet off to Germany, odds & evens, knucks, etc. I tried to pass some of these on to my son, but things are just not the same in the suburbs of Cleveland.
Does anyone remember this…
There are at least THREE…
There are at least THREE vivid pieces of nostalgia in my memories of Bensonhurst in the 50’s. One was Ernie the Good Humor Man. He spent winters in Florida, but appeared in our neighborhood each spring in starched-white uniform, pushing a small Good Humor cart …no truck for Ernie. He actually knew all of our names and our parents’ names, never kept a book, but if you were short on change …no problem, Ernie actuall let you have a popsicle ON CREDIT!!! We also had a neat ol’ Italian guy who came around (can you dig it?) on a horse-drawn cart to sell fresh produce/vegetables. As unbelievable as it sounds HIS NAME WAS ACTUALLY “MR. BROCCOLI”!!! I’m sure the last item wasn’t isolated to Bensonhurst; we also had a guy who regularly came around with a pushcart selling junk toys. The stuff was pure crap, but we loved it. Remember buying “tatoo” transfers?
Back in the Bronx in the…
“I cash clothes!” I remember…
“I cash clothes!” I remember it well even way over in Bensonhurst. We also used to get those old bearded Orthodox Jewish men who would get into the center courtyard of our building, and play the most magnificent concerts on their violins and clarinets. When they’d finish, pennies, nickles, and dimes would come flowing from all the windows from the floors above.