Category Archives: Locales

New York: The Way It Was (The Bronx)

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Hi Grape, The WLIW documentary “New York: The Way It Was (The Bronx)” has brief footage of a 9-boxed skully board. As I recall, it was like the board in the rules I’ve written, but it had 1-2-3-4 in the corners, 5-6-7-8 along the edges (between the corners), and 9 in dead center, surrounded by some circular thing which, I presume, serves as the skull. If you have any further insight into “9-box Skully” (my new term!), please post them here! -Hugh M. McNally Skully Central discussion moderator

In my neighborhood (Brownsville,…

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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.

A quick note about a small…

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A quick note about a small story related to the Semi-Finals. The field was on Vanderbilt Ave, next to Grand Central Station. THere were pedestrians strolling in and out. I saw one lady, walking with a cane and told her that we might need it for a bat. She stopped and handed it to me, saying “take it.” I was stunned but she insisted, saying it was meant to be. We received the following note about it today – Thanks “Stamstar.” I showed & told a lot of people about it. – Mick so this is the story…slipped on an acorn going down the stairs outside my house and tore a ligament which required surgery. after four wonderful weeks of peace and quite my boss said get back to work or else. my doctor said take the cane. it will give you balance. since i live in commecticut and work in new york i must be unbalanced anyway. however the cane became a pain and was really getting i n my way when i saw your game being played. It brought back a bunch of memories of my old neighborhood on Loring Place in the Bronx. It was mostly the boys that played ball. Richie Hoffman had the best stoop. Girls played potsy or jump rope. we were pretty tame back then. Anyway it seemed that there was a calling from above for me to donate my cane to your cause. I hope by now it hase been used many times and given many people pleasure. sincerely, stamstar

i live in philly, and i’m…

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i live in philly, and i’m 20 years old, we still play all old street games, our fav is wireball, you play we go into the night just playing that game, we once had the cops coming around and kicking us off the street because it was so late, another favorite game is half ball, we cut a tennis ball, or a racketball in half, if we can find pimple balls we use them, and hit it off the wall of an old prison on fairmount ave. so all you guys that think none of these games are still played, guess again, just come to fairmount ave. in philly and join us

I grew up in the E. Flatbush…

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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.

Wow. Much thanks to Hugh…

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Wow. Much thanks to Hugh for inviting to this outstanding site. Just read through the discussions and glad to see so many remember the game. I played in “Da Bronx” in the seventies. I took a picture in ’94 of the old scully board we played on as youths in the Bronx Park near 219th Street. The URL is: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/2561/scullpic.jpg While some used the sodatops with wax, the cap of choice was the “Push-UP” which we filled with clay. I had various caps (some heavy for blasting, others lighter for traveling great distances) but my primary cap was the “king checker.” The king checker was made of gold/yellow clay with a small plastic crown. We kept records and I was #3 on my block with a pair of Jamaican brothers as the two best. I once had the eldest trapped in ‘scully’ and would have easily beaten him but alas I was too kind, knocked him out of scully, and he came back to beat me. Every once in a while, like a habit that won’t die, I throw down a cap on the ground and see if my accuracy is up to par. I would certainly like to see in the future, an event of sorts where old time players could come together and compete. Maybe someday an Olympic sport? Okay, I’m reaching — but a competition would be very exciting.