Category Archives: Manhattan

I grew up on the Lower east…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: Rich Ostrowski [e-mail]
 

I grew up on the Lower east Side and played skulley throughout the late seventies/early eighties. I just read your rules document, and it seems complete. We had prepainted boards that did not have numbers in the skull except 13 of course. We just gave everyone 6 boxus/advances if you knocked someone out of the skull. If you knocked them from skull section to skull section it was treated as a standard hit. Our start was also much further from box # 1. Usually on the oposite side of the board, so beginers often found themself in the skull on turn one. We often switched caps when we became killers and used blasters. My favorite was the libby caps (about the size of todays snapple caps)

I grew up in the lower east…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: Rich ostrowski [e-mail]
 

I grew up in the lower east side, being only 34 that wasn’t long ago. We played the same game but called it ‘Man hunt’….We usually played in the street, but had an apartment version where we played in the building and the staircases…someone always cheated and hid in their own apartment

I started taking ballet…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: LoriB
 

I started taking ballet lessons. I lived in downtown Manhattan and I took my lessons on the upper East side of Manhattan. I got into the number 6 train on Canal Street and got out into a completely different world on 77 th Street. I walked the few blocks to 79th and 3rd and went into my classes and ate pizza on 76th and 3rd with my friend Luisa after class and before descending the stairs.

..born: bronx maternity…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: ken henry [e-mail]
 

..born: bronx maternity hospital (long gone)… ..apts: 571 E 170 / also across from plunge (ie:swimming pool) in Crotona Park… ..transportation: Grandpa, Uncles-Si, Lou, Abe Bernard OR the 3rd Ave “L”… ..schools: nr 170th near “L” & across from plunge (I do not remember what PS# … ..bagels: Grandpa, Uncles-Abe, Paul and Arthur all were bagel bakers in the Bronx (and later Paul in NJ)… ..fun: riding the “L” into Manhattan, the Bronx Zoo, Nathan’s @ Coney Island, Orchard Beach w/Grandpa & family… ..I’m sure that their is more, can anyone jog my memory???

On the lower east side we…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: msbrooksie
 

On the lower east side we also used to stand on the swings and “pump”. Another thing was to “take someone up” where one would sit and the other one would stand and pump. I was a chicken so I usually was the one sitting, with my eyes closed. We called them sliding ponds too. How about the wooden see-saws?

One special memory is very…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: Jeanne [e-mail]
 

One special memory is very vivid when I was a youngster. Coming from the lower east side of Manhattan, we weren’t anywhere close to any beach or swimming pools. We were too young to travel to the beach by ourselves. So, on really hot evenings, the older men in the neighborhood would turn on the fire hydrants and sometimes put a hollowed out garbage can over it, so the water would spray up. And we would all take turns running under the rushing water. Many times, we slipped and hurt ourselves, but it was all worth it JUST to get wet on a hot sticky summer night in New York.

On the Lower East Side we…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: webdiva
 

On the Lower East Side we called them “sliding ponds” also. And yeah, I have to chuckle when I think about all the “death-defying” stunts we did on those things — and the swings! I never did it, but many of my friends loved to stand on those metal swings, pump as hard as they could and fly through the air just holding on to the chains. I was WAY too chicken to do that. I did love the monkey bars, though. – webdiva

We threw anything we could…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: webdiva
 

We threw anything we could get our hands on. I loved this game growing up on the Lower East Side because you didn’t need to find a playground that already had a hopscotch “board”. Anyone who wanted to play would just go to the store and get a piece of chalk and draw right on the ground. We used bottle caps (when we weren’t playing skully with them), rocks, even pieces of glass in a pinch. – webdiva

I grew up on 173 St &…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: Dave MacDonnell [e-mail]
 

I grew up on 173 St & St. Nick. in Washington Heights back in the early sixties. Bottle caps with the melted crayons were cool, but for maximum speed and ease of shooting we used to rub the very top of the old glass soda bottles over the sewer covers until they broke off. Of coarse sooner or later someone would hit you hard enough to break it, but those old time bottles were pretty thick! Man this stuff sure brings back the memories!!!

I never even tried a Hula…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
Original author: LoriB
 

I never even tried a Hula Hoop until last summer – that’s right – summer 1998. Which of course I couldn’t do – but my kids had gotten a hula hoop as a gift and periodically – I mean each day periodically I would try to do it and finally I was able to do it to some degree. My friend, with a great body, had this idea that she should go to the beach and use a hula hoop and try to sell them as a great exercise method. She never did it, but my stomach muscles did hurt after I finished with my daily attempts. Before my family moved to Manhattan, we lived in an apartment building in Brooklyn, and after we had to come inside my brother would continue to use that pogo stick no matter how much our downstairs neighbors would bang.