Author Archives: Streetplay Discussions

In my hometown of Saratoga…

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In my hometown of Saratoga Springs, NY, we played a combination game. It used a long stick or branch broken off a bush. It had to look like a lance. Then we used a large handkerchief. We put the handkerchief in the middle of the road kind of bunched up in the middle. Two of use on two wheeled bikes each got to a starting point about 50 yards away from the handkerchief. At a signal, each rider would ride quickly toward the handkerchief and the oncoming rider. It was like jousters in the days of King Arthru. Each rider would try to pick up the handkerchief with the stick and get to the other person’s starting point without losing the handkerchief. Trying to knock the other guy’s stick was legal. The best two of three would win the match. We called it sticker-chief.

Where I grew up in Queens…

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Where I grew up in Queens we did the same thing. The building I lived in was one of a group which formed a circle around a courtyard. They were only three stories high (they seemed like skyscrapers), and it was commonplace to call up to mom to throw down some ice cream money or a ball and glove or just call up to friends either to get them to come down and play or just to have a conversation, window to pavement. Moms also used to call to their kids to come up for dinner. I don’t remember anyone ever complaining! Everyone did it.

As a 42 year old parent…

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As a 42 year old parent one thing i never hear anymore kids calling each other out. What i mean is one or more kids standing just outside the front walk or back gate of a friends house singing out their name with a high note for the first syllable and first part of the second then dropping low. Nice and loud until some response from the home was achieved. Kids with 1 syllable names were made to sound like two. Either the kid came or some one would yell back. Boy you were gauranteed a reponse if you had three or more singin it out. Sometimes from a neighbor telling you to shut up! This was the lower east side of Detroit with most of the kids being 1st or 2nd generation American with the parents or grandparents being born in Europe. I don’t know if it was fear of who you would get anwering the door or what. But it was pretty common and something my kids would never do today!