I grew up in Bensonhurst in the 60’s and we definitely had our choice of Pensie Pinkies or Spaldeens. We used to get them at Doc’s (later to become Egg Haven) across the street from PS. 97. Though I was a Spaldeen fan, Pensie Pinkies never went dead and never split open. But, there was nothing like writing on a new Spaldeen with a Bic pen. Ahhhhhh!
Any out there from east 56th St. and Linden Blvd. mid to late 1940’s to around 1950-51? Went to P.S. 232 (Winthrop Jr. High School). The Tomahawks of East 56th St. Billy Simon, Bobby Brown, Big and Little Louis, Owen Seitel, Mike Walsdorf. We played our games in the big alley on E. 56th St. If you remember, send e-mail.
In Bensonhurst Brooklyn we played another version of boxball. We used 4 boxes and the pitcher threw the ball bouncing it in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th box in quick succession. The batter had to hit the ball back into the 1st box in front of the pitcher. Caught was out, out of the box was out. One bounce a single, etc. we considered the most advaced form of box baseball and the older kids were very good at throwing the ball in the 3 boxes with all kinds of spins and reversing bounces. You could almost have he ball grazing the ground by the third bounce and very difficult to hit. The games we played that were offshoots of punchball or slapball depended on how many players were available. We called them triangle (3 bases) and squareball (4 bases) They were played the width of the gutter (street). There was a chalk square in front of the batter that the pitcher had to lob the ball into for a strike. The batter could slap any pitch. Justballs was selling spaldeens as of a year ago.
Socrates, it was called “Buck Buck”. When all the jumpers were on the stoopers backs one of the jumpers would yell “Buck Buck how many horns are up” and hold up 1, 2 or 3 fingers. One of the stoopers would have to guess the number. If the stooper was correct the teams would reverse roles. If he was wrong or the stoopres caved in under the weight of the jumpers the jumpers would get to go again. If any of the jumpers fell off the stoopers before the number was called the jumpers would lose and have to change positions as well.The guy against the wall (the pillow) would verify the number to prevent cheating. We played this in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn during the late 50’s early 60’s.
Grew up in Sunset Park area, 45th street between 5th & 6th avenues late 50’3 early 60’s. Went to Saint Michaels and John Jay H.S. Then a couple of years at NYCCC. Sunset Park was the best. We played softball in the pool in the Spring and Fall, then they put a softball court in the playground.