Streetplay Discussions
Remember playing with “cutouts”?…
Remember playing with “cutouts”? Paper dolls that came in books–the dolls were on the cover, and a whole assortment of clothes was inside. We cut out the dolls, dressed them, and sat on the top step of our stoops playing for ages and ages. A world of fashion and fantasy for a dime–or a quarter for the good, heavyweight cut-out books. My friends Maria and Starlet and I bought our cutout books at Miltie’s candy store (on Dahill Road, Brooklyn). We kept the paper dolls and the clothes in shoe boxes. We had whole families–I remember that my favorite “mother” doll was Sheree North! (Celebrity cutout books were big!) Her family was usually baby triplets, who came in another book. This was several years before Barbie dolls, and I suspect we had just as much fun with the paper dolls as girls do with their Barbies today (if not more!).
I don’t remember SPIT, but…
I don’t remember SPIT, but I do remember playing “War” on the top step of my stoop. This was a two-person game. You dealt 26 cards to each player, face down, and you each turned over one at a time. The player whose card had the higher value took both cards. If you both turned over a card with the same value, you had a “War”–you piled three cards on top (face down) and turned over the 4th card. The higher one took all the cards in the war. Sometimes there was a double war–really exciting! My friend Starlet and I sometimes had games that lasted for days.
When I was in Jr. High School,…
When I was in Jr. High School, I was a very manipulative kid. I always got the kids to follow what I wanted to do, but they ultimately came to despise me. I was really good at boxball (Chinese Handball), but one time I finally lost. We were doing booties up – the kids lined up with glee in the eyes and I realized how much they hated me. It was an epiphany. I realized I must be doing something wrong and I changed.
This is so great!! You’ve…
This is so great!! You’ve opened up a flood of memories that have been locked up for years. Dirt bombs, rock fights, BB-guns, sling shots, carpet guns, snow-ball fights(a piece of ice or a rock inside was optional), “forts” in the lots or behind the billboards, gang fights, “mickie”(potato) roasts on a summer night in the lots… My god, how did we ever survive this “right of passage”??? Those experiences of my youth in good old Flatbush were to prepare me for the tough years that lay ahead both in the military and in the business world. Thanks for the memory….
HELLO DARE!!!!!!!!!! I have…
HELLO DARE!!!!!!!!!! I have tried every website,every class reunion thing, everything and have come to the conclusion that the people on our block are too stupid or too cheap to use a PC or maybe even dead ’cause none of them have ever shown up anywhere! We should have lived in Flatbush or Ridgewood but not on Willoughby Ave. Big Richie B.
I used to hang out with…
I used to hang out with these kids in Woodside. When it was snowy and icy, we wore special clothes for one of our favorite activities “Skitching.” You had to have boots with substantial soles. We had rubberized fabric gloves and glove liners and the gloves were typically bright colors. Kids even had rubber pants. After a really severe snowstorm the cars would have to slow down, and only go at about 20 miles an hour down Queens Blvd. You could hide between parked cars, sneak out in a crouch behind a car when it stopped at a light. Grabbing the bumper, you’d lean back and let the car pull you down the street. We called it skitching because it was a cross between hitching and skiing. Most times the drivers didn’t see you. You could go for blocks. What a ride!
A very rough and popular…
A very rough and popular English game for boys in High School is Bulldog. You’d have two teams starting with the same number, one attacking and one on defense. The attackers would try to reach the wall behind the defending team, but any attacker that got caught (tackled to the ground) would have to join the defenders team. As the game progressed, there would be less and less attackers. There was no winning, it was just a game of pure attrition, with lots of bruises. You’d get a good reputation in school if you were good at Bulldog. It was a great game for growing boys.
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In the East End of London we’d also play ball in the streets. Because we were in a crowded neighborhood you’d modify the ball games. You’d play football (soccer) in the park, but in the street you’d modify it to kick against a wall, which the other guy had to return. It was kind of like squash, but with a soccer ball. We’d play cricket by painting stumps on the wall, and then hitting only to the front or sides. We even had a game we called “Stickball” in which you’d use a broom handle to hit a tennis ball. We didn’t have bases, it was just for fun. We’d create all kinds of games against this one wall about 200 yards from my house. A wall, a ball and a parking lot was all we needed for hours of fun.
I lived in Fresh Meadows…
I lived in Fresh Meadows Queens and we had an enormous group of boys and girls who would play together after school for hours and hours. We created an elaborate ongoing saga based on the TV show Lost in Space. We each had steady roles (I was Penny), a boy named Steven was my space monkey. Our game wasn’t based on the episodes, but our characters were from the show. We’d create our own experiences. The guy who played Don the pilot and the girl playing the older sister (what was her name?) absolutely had a relationship going, but we were kids so, what would you call it? Whatever it was, the roles gave us the freedom to play out what we wanted to do and say in real life.