Category Archives: Locales

For someone growing up in…

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For someone growing up in Canarsie in the 60’s, stickball was played in schoolyards (and still is where I live in the Bronx) It allowed two-4 or more kids to play ball. PS 144 and 155 had walls and protected windows. On the wall was a large box, the strike zone. All that was need was a “stickball” bat, sold in a store. Although a broom handle was similar, the store ones were shorter and heavier, much nicer feel. Tennis balls I liked, a bit heavier, more predictable path. I learned to hit up the middle, much safer and less chasing than pulling. Also, I am not a power hitter, it made me much better.

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I grew up in the housing projects in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. There was an overhang above the front entrance and the mothers used to collect bottle caps for months and during a fine hot day in summer would stand on top of the overhang and yell bottle caps.We would come running and the filled cigar box was emptied in front of the door. The prize caps were White Rock and solid gold or silver. My father made his own lead sinkers for fishing and my caps were filled with the lead. I could blast anyone out of the skelly box. (We called to the center jail). someone used to come from the Bronx to play me – maybe he would visit his grandmother too!)

I grew up in Ridgewood,…

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I grew up in Ridgewood, Brooklyn during the late sixties and we used to play Skellsy amidst the street traffic. We never filled our caps with any kind of substance, but my buddy Joe, who grew up in Howard Beach tells me he used to melt crayon wax into his caps for added weight. He and I have debated for years the correct name of this beloved game. He called it skullys and I called it Skellsy. I guess we were both right.

In our neighborhood in Queens…

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In our neighborhood in Queens we called it single, double, triple. There was no batter. The person up threw the Spaldeen against the side of a building (no stoop) and it would ricochet toward us into the “field” (cement and dirt). Of course, with a really good shot, we would all shout single, double, triple, home run! as we all scrambled in vain for the ball.

Mick & Pez, You…

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Mick & Pez, You guys have done a service for mankind (at least for Brooklynkind) with this website. I left Brooklyn (Bath Beach/Bensonhurst) almost 55 years ago and I still remember the joys of stickball, punchball, handball, Chinese handball, boxball, Chinese boxball, skully, land, ring-a-levio, three feet off to Germany, odds & evens, knucks, etc. I tried to pass some of these on to my son, but things are just not the same in the suburbs of Cleveland.

“I cash clothes!” I remember…

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“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.