“I cash clothes!” I remember it well even way over in Bensonhurst. We also used to get those old bearded Orthodox Jewish men who would get into the center courtyard of our building, and play the most magnificent concerts on their violins and clarinets. When they’d finish, pennies, nickles, and dimes would come flowing from all the windows from the floors above.
In my neighborhood (Brownsville, Brooklyn), a Spaldeen was 15 cents–too steep for a lot of kids. An alternative was an ugly, underinflated, evil-smelling, grayish-pink ball with crudely vulcanized hemispheres that we used to call the “eggball.” It got that name because, no matter where you hit it with a stickball bat, it’d go almost straight up, and oscillate wildly in an egg shape. Impossible to catch without it squirting out of your hands. Stickball games were won on lopsided margins on errors alone using eggballs. If we were really lucky, the local toy store or candy store would get a load of “seconds”–Spaldeens that were defective in some way, so they had “second” stamped on them. They were 8 cents or a dime, and were a real bargain.
I grew up in the E. Flatbush section of Brooklyn. One of my memories is of touch football games in the street. There’d be a group of kids, 10 and 11 years old, hanging oout on the stoop. We’d start getting cold and decide to do something, someone would suggest a game of touch. Back then, both boys and girls could play. In fact, the girls were usually a little faster than the boys, so would really be able to get a jump on them in the long pass. The boys were stronger, but it was great to see the look on the guys face when this one girl, who was kind of whiny, got a step on him and ran for the score.
PS186 in Brooklyn: Sponge Ball: Basically a pitcher and batter. Box painted on the wall represents strike zone. Baseball wiht no running, the father you hit the ball the bigger hit you got Other huge games Ace King queen wiffle ball triangle ringolevio off the wall i declare war In winter, skitchin as well as bombing passing cars withe ice balls from the corner
I grew up on 4th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The R Train (4th Avenue Local -The “RR” or Ridge Runner back then) traveled the length of 4th Avenue to 95th Street. Every other block had subway ventilation grates (known as the “subway gratings”) on the sidewalk near the curb. People would drop coins and other “stuff” down there. To get them out, you assembled a “fishing” kit: A 3 ounce lead fishing sinker A ball of string (kite string was good) A jar of Vaseline Take the lead sinker, and scrape and smash the pointed bottom on the sidewalk until it is flattened. Our string used to be wrapped around a small stick. Tie the string on the sinker, and dab Vaseline on the flattened end of it. Walk along the gratings until you see a coin. Lower the sinker, and moving carefully, hover just above the coin. When the sinker steadies, drop it on the coin. (Here you have to be careful… if you miss, the sinker will hit the bottom of the air shaft and the Vaseline gets full of dirt and loses its stickiness). After “catching” the coin, pull it up slowly… if you go too fast, the coin will fall off. Many times you would get a coin all the way to the top, but when maneuvering the sinker and coin through the grating, it would hit the side and the coin would fall off. There always seemed to be lots of coins nearer to Bay Ridge Avenue (69th Street). The local lore had it that people rushing for the train would drop their change.
I live in Long Island but grew up in Queens and my wife grew up in Brooklyn. When we are home relaxing and hanging out we sit on the front stoop. Another couple from Howard Beach moved in on the block and then sit on the front stoop too, but all the people who grew up on Long Island sit in the backyard. You don’t get to know your neighbors as easily as you used to.