Growing up in the Bronx (Evergreen and Story Aves) I used to play skulley until my Mom would make me come in for the night, this was usually after the sun went down! My favorite caps used to come from the bottoms of the school chairs at PS 93, heavy metal and smooth. Brings back memories of “No Kicksies” and “I called Helicopters”. I’ve taught my kids how to play and hopefully the game will never die.
I remember those little green turtles. We had 2 when I was 5 or 6 and living in Brooklyn. We called them King and Queen (how original). They lived for some short period of time before they died and we buried them in a field that later became Dewey High School. It was a solemn moment for my sister and me. She was only 4 and still remembers it. By the way, I think its now illegal to sell those little turtles. Be on guard for the turtle police!
Every kid at one time or another wants a pet. My very first pet was a little green turtle who I named Max. The pet stores sold “Turtle Kits, and the turtle was free, if you bought the kit to keep it in. The kit consisted of a plastic “turtle condo”, complete with a little island in the center, and a geen plastic tree. Turtle food was extra. I remember the excitement I felt in having something of my own to take care of. Every day when I came home from school, I’d throw down my books and have a visit with Max. Max lived for about a year or so, and after Max died, I moved on to something bigger– Hamsters. I had many. They bred. I had many more. Now, my children and I have a managerie of our own. To date, our managerie consists of; 2 Guinea pigs, a cockatiel, a goldfish, 2 snails, and a hedgehog named Spike. Thanks Max!
Yes Turkish Taffy. You remember BONOMOS.The song went on TV BO NO MO BONOMOS OOO its BONOMOS CANDY. Went along with N E S T L E S Nestles makes the very best….. CHOOOOOOC LAAAATE.Also Choo Choo Charley was an engineer Choo Choo Charley did his best we hear He had an engine and he sure had fun He used Good and Plenty candy to make his train run Everyone Charlie says ” Love my good and plenty” Charlie says ” really rings the bell” Charlie says ” Love my Good and Plenty” He used Good and Plenty candy to make his train run. or Whad do you want when you gotta have something and its gotta be good and its gotta be alot and you only have a dime.Whadda you want Alan Karlin
How about Charlie the Ice Cream independent who traveled around the Sheepshead Bay High School area. He was realy dapper with his white uniform handlebar mustache and he even gave you a chance to win free ice cream with his bubblegum dispenser. But only if you got the yellow multicolored gum. Alan Karlin 2450 Haring Street
On my block, there were a few more games played with either the Spalding ( courser better feel) or Pensie Pinkie. The first was stoop ball. On Haring Street in front of 2450 the stoop consisted of 4 steps. Each step was assigned a point value. The bottom three 100 points if hit directly on the point while the top step 500 points ( more hazardous). Games were for 1000 pts with 5 pts for hitting the stoop and catching it on 1 and only 1 bounce. 10 pts were gotten if the ball hit the stoop and caught on a fly ( not the point area). You were out if the ball was caught with more than one bounce, errored, or missed the stoop entirely(trying to hit the top stoop and failing, and finally hitting one of the elder mean you can’t play here or block the stoop from us using it to go down B00000000.Games could be either one on one or teams.Box ball ( 2 squares of concrete lenthwise), Box baseball ( 3 squares lenthwise), 4 person boxball ( 4 squares in a square pattern) and finally stoopball baseball. Finally I might add, actually the best balls for stickball off the wall was the cheaper no-name ones. They were usually 5 – 10 cents each (spalding 25 cents) softer, either yellow or pink and could be manipulated such that you could throw a really mean sinker Knuckleball, and a wicked slider that broke of the end of the table. Unfortunately they split easier too.
I had a blue banana seat bike with glitter tassles and a white flowered basket on the handle bars. God did I love that bike! The banana seat was blue with white along its edge. I used to ride with no hands all the time(for some reason I can’t do that anymore on my moutain bike)….holding onto the upside-down u shaped metal bar that the seat was attached to and leaning waaaaay back. Sometimes I would hang a little licence plate back there. Remember the ones that you could get out of cereal boxes??! That bar also made it easier for your passenger to hold on. It’s hard as heck to do that now that’s for sure! Banana seat bikes were the low riders of the bicycle world. You could trick them out in all sorts of ways. Tassles, a basket between the handlebars, playing cards in the spokes, rear-view mirrors, bells, horns, etc. They were the greatest! I’ve seen that they’ve made a little comeback in some communities out west. But sadly, not here on the east coast. *Sigh*
Being born in the 1970 I was blessed to have enjoyed BOTH Metal skates (and yes! I remember having to drag that lose skate over to a bench so I could redo it!) and white boot, orange rubber wheeled ones. I also remember the sneaker skates! I thought those were the coolest! I got stuck with the white, blister causing boots. And you couldn’t have any scuffs on those white boots….Noooooo! As soon as they got scuffed, you busted out the white liquid shoe polish! I polished mine so much that I rubbed off the foam applicator tip on the liquid polish bottle. 🙂 I have a friend who sill has her brown suede skates. She used to show them off but rarely skated with them lest she mess them up. Waste of money if you ask me…. I got some rollerblades a couple of years back. But because I learned to skate on 4 wheels with the stopper at the toe, I have soooo much trouble stopping it’s not funny!!!