Category Archives: Brooklyn

Remember playing with “cutouts”?…

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Remember playing with “cutouts”? Paper dolls that came in books–the dolls were on the cover, and a whole assortment of clothes was inside. We cut out the dolls, dressed them, and sat on the top step of our stoops playing for ages and ages. A world of fashion and fantasy for a dime–or a quarter for the good, heavyweight cut-out books. My friends Maria and Starlet and I bought our cutout books at Miltie’s candy store (on Dahill Road, Brooklyn). We kept the paper dolls and the clothes in shoe boxes. We had whole families–I remember that my favorite “mother” doll was Sheree North! (Celebrity cutout books were big!) Her family was usually baby triplets, who came in another book. This was several years before Barbie dolls, and I suspect we had just as much fun with the paper dolls as girls do with their Barbies today (if not more!).

HELLO DARE!!!!!!!!!! I have…

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HELLO DARE!!!!!!!!!! I have tried every website,every class reunion thing, everything and have come to the conclusion that the people on our block are too stupid or too cheap to use a PC or maybe even dead ’cause none of them have ever shown up anywhere! We should have lived in Flatbush or Ridgewood but not on Willoughby Ave. Big Richie B.

His name was Ira Stevens….

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His name was Ira Stevens. He was tall and shy, towering over me, and it was the 50’s. I lived on Montgomery Street and then on East 18th in Flatbush – a Brooklynite. His only problem was that he had a stutter, but I never viewed that as a problem. Perhaps my mother did, and he went off to the Korean war – and I waited for letters from him, which never arrived. Then my mother told me years later that he had written, but she’d destroyed the letter. I think it was the most hurtful thing she ever did to me, if not to him.

I grew up in Ridgewood on…

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I grew up in Ridgewood on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. We played stickball on a short street which was on a hill with first and third painted in (2nd was the sewer). We would hit by ourselves (no pitching), with 2 strikes. The thing was that if you hit it over the roof before second base you were out and if you hit it over the roof over 2nd base across the block, you won the games. These rules were to protect the ball from being lost. Neighbors were not particularly happy about us playing in the street, we were loud, the ball might break a window, land on the porch, etc. so they’d call the police. If the cops would come and catch us they’d stick the broom handle in the holes of the manhole cover and snap the bat, so we’d have someone on watch who would call out “Chickee the cops” if he saw them coming. If warned we’d hide the bats by rolling them under the cars next to the curb. To this day I still can’t throw out a broom handle.

grew up in e.n.y. section…

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grew up in e.n.y. section of brooklyn.our sports equipment was,broom stick,can, spaldeen(correct spelling), stoop,alley way,one look out for the bad neighbor who would take our balls(no pun intended) lived on van siclen and belmont from 1943 to 1963. went to p.s. 158 jhs 149 and jefferson h.s. played punchball against other streets(hendrix st, miller ave,schneck ave,wyona street.) we were all poor but did not know it.every street had one “rich kid” who had parents with a car.now live in south fla.

What neighborhood in Brooklyn…

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What neighborhood in Brooklyn were you from? We’ve been finding that Stickball in Manhattan was mainly slow pitch, in the Bronx fungo (hitting by yourself). IN Queens – fastpitch, wall ball – or what was jsut called stickball was played mainly as you describe. In fact, we’ve just talked to someone who has a L.I City Queens league based on this. Brooklyn seems to have had a combination.

We played stickball in the…

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We played stickball in the schoolyard of P.s. 209, Brooklyn. We never played with more than three people on a team. Our rules were simple, chalk box on the wall for the strikezone, no arguments there just look at the chalk on the ball. Hit the top of the fence on a fly and you had a double. Hit the bottom of the fence on the fly and you got a triple. Anywhere over the fence and you touched them all. No toe left on my Pro-Keds after a month. It’s too bad I can’t find anyone to play stickball with in Southern California. I’ll always be a Brooklyn boy at heart. Talking about this makes me want to get up and walk down to Nathan’s and get a bag of those greasy fries, nothing like it in the world.

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The Stickball Classic was scheduled for Staten Island today. Last night’s barrage of rain made the game date questionable. This morning players and game assistants looked out to pouring rain, particularly in the Brooklyn/Queens region. Although the rain had stopped by game time, many of the teams and assistants scheduled to be at the event were not there. Stickball Commissioner Curtis Sliwa decided to call the game. The make up time will be shortly announced. The players were obviously disappointed. As the weather cleared and the sun peaked out, it became clear that games could have been held, however, the call had already been made and announced. Players and fans will have to wait to determine who will represent Staten Island in the 1999 Stickball Classic. It should be noted that one of the 3 teams that showed up were the Brookfield Bomber, a team that has already secured its place in the finals by taking the Brooklyn crown in the first week of competition. Even though the day would not be “official” fun was not to be denied. Players decided to take advantage of the day and play anyway. A good crew of players was on-hand when we left midway in the first game. Please post the results of the games so we know what happened. Hope to see you guys at the next one.