Category Archives: Brooklyn

I used to play stickball…

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I used to play stickball on 54th and 9th ave in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the 60’s and 70’s. First, spauldings and then Pense Pinkies. Georgie Williams was the first on the block to hit it 3 sewers. Joe Martone spent the entire time out on his stoop to make sure we didn’t hit his cadillac. Lots of fun and memories. I think back and wondered how we could keep our eyes on the ball – through trees, phone and power wires, cars (parked and moving) and still catch a small ball hit two sewers long and five stories high!

Grew up in East New York…Alabama…

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Grew up in East New York…Alabama and Blake. Went to PS 174.. JHS 149 (my older sister went to JHs 109 and to Jefferson, 1957) and then we moved to Eastern Parkway in 1961 and I graduated from Wingate in 1964…. Played my guitar and figured I’d become a folksinger and call myself Suzanne Martin… Looking for Jerry Hertz and Bobby Stone, …. found Ira Moscowitz, Phil Sobrane and Irene Mossberg….Still have my ‘spaldeen’ and top…. I played ball with the boys and double-dutch with Leonore, Irene, Michelle and Dorothy… get in touch if you’re out there. Sheindie (Suzie Kusnetz Bobele)

When I was between, say,…

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When I was between, say, 11 and 15, we used to play a lot of boy/girl games, like Spin the Bottle, but also Seven Minutes in Heaven, RCK, and Trust Me. I came of age in the 70s in Brooklyn and still live in Brooklyn. RCK was played in the dark, usually at home when your parents were out. You would feel around in the dark and touch a person and if he/she didn’t run, you’d kiss them. Seven Minutes in Heaven is exactly how it sounds, provided you were in heaven with the one you wanted to be with. I forget how you hooked up with the person you were to spend seven minutes with. Trust Me was the funniest one, because a guy would place his hand way down on your leg and work his way up and ask you if you trusted him and he proceeded. If you were shy or didn’t know the guy well, you’d stop him at your thigh, if you liked him he would work his way up to your breast and then you would have been officially “felt up.” (I hope I’m not being too graphic. I know this is PG.) In those days guys rarely made a pit stop you know where. Did anyone else play these games or was I just hanging out with the wrong crowd?

I remember a negative verse…

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I remember a negative verse to little play mate. something like “oh little devil, come out and play with me. ——I’ll scratch your eyes out, I’ll— and we’ll be enemies forevermore, 1,2,3,4” How’s that for disturbing. I can’t remember it really, can anyone else? From Brooklyn, NY

Wow, wow wow! This site…

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Wow, wow wow! This site is a blast! Skully was one of my favorite games growing up on 37th street! inBrooklyn. I had a brushed cotton pair of pants, bright yellow. They were for school, and I remember wrecking them up with tar, you know, laying across the sidewalk for that perfect shot! I got in trouble for wrecking a lot of clothes over that game. I now live just north of Toronto, (that’s in Canada for any of the geographically challenged!) and hope to get my kids and the neighborhood into this great game. I have 2 boys that I am sure would love it if they started playing. Geez, this has gotten me nostalgic. I also plan on looking up SPUD, I saw someone mention earlier. We played this too, but all I have is a vague memory of chasing friends with a ball. LET THE STREETGAMES LIVE ON!! Signed, missing my Brooklyn youth, Denise

REMEMBER PERIODICALY DEFECTING…

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REMEMBER PERIODICALY DEFECTING TO NYC 42nd Street FROM BROOKLYN TO SPEND A DAY WATCHING CHEAP “B” ACTION, HORROR, AND KIDDIE SKIN FLICKS CHARLES BRONSON’S VIGILANTE, BRUCE LEE, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, HELL-RAISER, ETC. There was always more action in the theater than on the screen. Guys on angeldust leaping from the top balconies onto the audience below screaming “I can fly”; gun-shots and stampedes, setting off fire sprinklers… snickering at the couples using the back seats as motels, oh, the memories. Once after having seafood and pasta, I went to 42nd street to see a horror movie with an old guy-friend and spent the entire movie wretching (and I wasn’t bulemic) in the john, as some crazy girl stood outside my stall singing gospel songs, the worst of it is she had a beautiful eerie voice. (Kind’ve like Kate Bush singing Wurthering Heights)It was weird. I went to some drive-in theaters in the south and they had the same cheap movie thrill as 42nd street and they had an apparent b-movie star that I had not been aware of before: Dolomite!

I lived in East New York…

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I lived in East New York (Buschwick-Arlington) from the time I was born in 65 until 77. I can relate to many of the stories posted. One that sticks with me was how we would sit around with the “older boys” and plan how we were going to catch “The Son of Sam!”

I am so attention-deficit…

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I am so attention-deficit its not funny….I read the archives as found a few other people mentioning the 1-9 configuration and was relieved that my memory was intact. In 1981 I did a term abroad in Seville, Spain and lived in a barrio that was very urban with many apartment buildings. I enjoyed hanging with the kids better than the college students and remember showing a group of kids there how to play skully. When I left Seville 10 weeks later I spotted a few 1-9 skully boards chalked into the sidewalk over a mile away. Its a really satisfying thing to pass on….a piece of your childhood in Brooklyn! My kids, Caitlin and Connor, and me are in the process of bringing skully to Delaware and Schoharie counties