Category Archives: Brooklyn

Chinese Double-dutch. Any…

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Chinese Double-dutch. Any girls remember that? It was played at all the great melting pot schools in the working class areas…which is pretty much Brooklyn personified. My area was Ditmas Junior High (IS 62). And Chinese double-ddutch is a game played with two girls standing on either end, but instead of holding clothes line rope they’re inside of a long chain-link of sturdy rubberbands. The jumper must negotiate complex “Twister-like” contortions with torso and legs and always be able to jump outside of the rubber bands, both legs free and clear.For lunch a big mixture of kids would flock together to varying restaurants to eat anything from Kasha Varnishkas (spelled right?) Pizza, tandoori chicken, egg rolls, canolli… you have it. We even traded bagged lunches. My pastrami for your fried chicken… it always worked out. This was a cultural exchange between the Asian and the African sisters back in the early 70’s, where we found common ground despite the odds. Some of those kids I’ve seen through life in Paris, Frisco, and Miami. It’s a small big world in Brooklyn. PS: I found out the game was Skully, not Skelly… thanks.

Although it’s been many…

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Although it’s been many years since NY was my home, I’m originally from the Bed-Stuy area of Brooklyn, but I went to school in Manhattan Beach’s PS 195. My best friend’s name was Randy, and she lived in a mansion with a yacht(I never knew we had them in urban NY), and she had 5 black maids. This amazed me because my grandmother was a black maid. I treated them all with the utmost respect. Randy and I were inseperable and I miss her and wish I could remember her last name. I left 6th grade with a 12.9 grade reading level thanks to my laid-back early 1970’s hippy teachers. That was a great school. In Bed-Stuy we played games like Skelly, where you used the plastic top of a milk jug filled with wax and flushed even by sidewalk scraping. Does anyone remember this game or what a skelly court looked like? I’d like to make one for my son.

I hung out on 53rd street…

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I hung out on 53rd street & 4th avenue . We had a crowd of about 35 . This is back in the 50s.Anyone remember Helberg’s ice cream parlor,Abes lunchenette ,coliseum bar ? They where all at that corner . I remember sunset pool,Bay Ridge Roller Rink , St. Rocco’s, Olph , dance’s on friday night’s.Standing on the corner with a bunch of guy’s listening to Alan Freed’s rock n roll music . Boy those where the day’s.

Isn’t the internet great…

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Isn’t the internet great ?? My buddy and I were playing with his two year old daughter in Florida and asked his wife what she called a “slide” when she was young. My friend and I are from New Jersey and our parents grew up in the Bronx & Brooklyn. We always called it a “sliding pond” (although I must confess, I always thought that the word was “pon” … because everyone knows that a “pond” is water, y’know, like a lake)Anyway, his wife is from Maryland and never heard of a sliding pond. We immediately hit the ‘net & BINGO…..we knew that we were not alone. It’s a SLIDING POND !!! My lasting memory is the metal stairs with the name of the manufacturer in Litchfield, Michigan (I think). Litchfield is kinda like a name I know, so it stuck with me. Sliding ponds do burn your ass, though…..so give me a new water slide anyday now !!!!

in the bensonhurst section…

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in the bensonhurst section of brooklyn in and around seth low jhs, stoop ball was played as described,and a different game when the street was clear and we could really blast the ball, we played single,double , triple…but stoop ball was king, one bounce 5 pts, on a fly ten, pointer 100, and we had a stoop that if u hit the pointer above the top step, which was really the door sill on the top step, it was maybe 1 inch high, so if u hit it just right…500 points, but if you were just a hair high on it, u would hit the door, and thats an “out”. next person would go.

Mine was one of the families…

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Mine was one of the families that moved from Brooklyn to Staten Island when the Verrazano Bridge was completed in the mid 60’s. Many of the Brooklyn customs of games, pranks, etc. came along with us to Staten Island. Many of the games were altered to fit into the country-like atmosphere of the Island at that time. Ringaleavio was played in the woods, for example. Any Staten Islander’s out there? I grew up in Oakwood Heights and went to St. Charles Elementary School and Mon.Farrell High School. I live in Massachusetts now.

Spaldeens were used for…

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Spaldeens were used for Stoop,Stick and Wall Ball. In the area known as Red Hook south Brooklyn. There was a street game that most called “punch ball” We chose to call it fist ball, since you didn’t hit it with a punch but rather your closed fist or in some instances an open hand, to slap it or slice it. The ball was hit with the exposed flat joints and heel of the hand The prefered ball for this was known as a “Pimple ball”, it was white and a little softer than a Spaldeen. The ball had dots in between lines that ran around the ball. Some had a star at the top and bottom of the ball. There was no room on our block to play stick ball, with cars parked on either side and there were only a few stores in the area that sold it. One was Scamadellas, on Court and Baltic Streets. 15 cents each.

Fantastic to read about…

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Fantastic to read about all the stories from the old days. As an ex-Brooklynite from the 50’s, the question is where can I play stickball in Manhattan when I’m in town? Any suggestions about specific places to play stickball will be greatly appreciated. At my age, anything that bounces will suffice, although Spaldeen was the ticket in my neighborhood.