Category Archives: Locales
PS186 in Brooklyn: Sponge…
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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
Looking for aluminum stickball…
I grew up on 4th Avenue…
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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 played buck-buck for several…
I grew up in the South Bronx…
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I grew up in the South Bronx on E 142nd between Willis and Third Ave, back in the early 50s. I was the smallest kid on the block. Whenever we played stickball, the ball would inevitably end up going downhill into the sewer on Third Ave. The big kids would remove the grating, give me a coat hanger with a loop at the end of it and lower me down head first holding me by the ankles. I’d reach down with the coat hanger get it under the ball, scoop it up and toss it to the guys. Sometimes there would be other balls in there for awhile. you could tell because the submerged half would be a different color than the top. This was considered a real good thing by the guys cause we wouldn’t have to go and get 10 cents for a ball. My mom didn’t like it cause I’d come home smelling likt the sewer. One time when I was about 8 or 9 she really got disgusted, she stripped me down, threw me in the tub and beat the sh** out of me while scrubbing me down and yelling. Even that didn’t stop me. Being part of the boys was more important.
I live in Long Island but…
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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.
Where I grew up (Dahill…
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.