Category Archives: Locales

I grew up in West Philly…

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I grew up in West Philly in the 70’s. what we called “Box Ball” was played on a “baseball diamond” (anything would do…never on a real field) played with a tennis ball, pink rubber ball (solid) , or a white rubber ball (hollow). The game was played like baseball except instead of a pitcher the batter would drop the ball and hit the ball with their fist.. aiming at someone they felt couldn’t field or just over someones head… and you would run the bases and score like in baseball.. 3 outs per inning… never heard of what everyone else calls “box ball” anyone else out there that remembers playing such a game and what you may of called it????

In my neighborhood in Philly,…

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In my neighborhood in Philly, we called the game “Killers”, but it appears to be the same game as described by the NY kids as Skullie or Skillies. I have great memories of rigging-up a magnet on a string and fishing bottle caps out of the soda machine at the Flying A station on the corner of 5th and Sommerville. An entire side industry developed around collecting the caps. Not that we didn’t take the game seriously. We eventually painted the squares on the street; it was a dead-end so traffic was limited to occasional trucks going to and from the factory across the street.

I grew-up in Philly (Onley)…

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I grew-up in Philly (Onley) and remember playing both Half-Ball and Wire-Ball as described by Spredhaus. We lived on a street that dead-ended into the railroad tracks, so there was little through traffic except for the trucks going into and out of the factory across the street. We also played a one-bounce pitch version of Punch-Ball. Curb-Ball and Stoop-Ball (or Step-Ball) was common when there were fewer kids around, although we had so many kids getting a Punch-Ball game together was pretty easy

When I lived in Valley Stream,…

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When I lived in Valley Stream, just over the line from Queens in the early fifties, I played a game called Tip-Cat. It had the same “rules” as stick ball. I was very young (seven) when I last played the game. The inherent dangers of the game caused me to retire after I got three stiches in the corner of my eye from a missed Tip-Cat. Actually, my Mom said if I ever played Tip-Cat again, she would kill me herself rather than having me lose an eye! A Tip-Cat was a stick about six inches long and fatter in the middle than both ends. The Tip-Cat was placed on the ground in front of the batter. The batter took his bat (any good broom handle) and would strike downward on the end of the Tip-Cat. The Tip-Cat would then “jump” up into the air and the batter would hit it like any pitched ball. The fielders had to catch this flying stick in the air to get a chance to get up to bat. Runs were scored the same as stick ball. I cannot believe I ever played a game like this, but I was only seven and the other players were older. It really is amazing that anyone playing this game survived with any eyesight.

Does anyone remember the…

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Does anyone remember the felt hats with the feather on the side and your name embroidered across the front? I loved that hat I got from my first trip to the World’s Fair. Between my parents and my schoolteachers, I went back about another 19 times! Wore my “lucky” hat every trip.

What a find! I was always…

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What a find! I was always interested in collecting baseball cards because I had some from my older brother, and loved baseball. Back in about 1970 or 71, the official “hobby” of collectibles was still quite young. I was starting to buy cards from dealers. By today’s standards they were quite cheap. Cards like Jackie Robinson or Willie Mays from 1956 sold for $6 or $7, as shown in publications like The Trader Speaks. My friend David and I, also a collector cards, heard of a sale in Brooklyn. We lived in eastern Queens, so we understood this would be a long ride. We decided to take the bus and train and each brought a couple of hundred bucks, hoping we’d get “lucky.” When we got out of the train, we realized were in a pretty tough section of Bedford Stuyvesant (2 Black Panther Storefronts within the couple of blocks from the train). David was black, and I’m white and though we both had a fairly good street sense, we realized we were a bit out of our element. At 16 between the long ride, train transfers and different neighborhood, it felt like a long way from home. We went to the home of a guy named Ronald Moore, an early collector. Ronald was both friendly and very knowledgeable about the collectibles. He showed us his collectible items and early hobby publications “The Sports Hobbyist” (circa ’60, ’61). Ronald had to leave town, and in order to raise some cash was doing a big “fire sale.” He had stacks of excellent condition Topps baseball cards from 1957-1962, doubles and triples of Mays, Mantle, Clemente, Kaline. Oh Wow! Hobby-heaven. We walked out of there, each of us carrying 2 or 3 shopping bags of cards. David and I were both able to make nearly full sets of cards for those years, with plenty of doubles to spare. It was only years later that I realized what a “find” this was. This provided the base for my collection as well as a nice economic cushion, which helped me for example, to pay moving costs into different NYC apartments.

My number was Virginia 9….

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My number was Virginia 9. We lived in queens. I remember shoe laces – Long thin strips of licorish, wax soda bottles, and candy smokes. We used to buy penny candy, little carmels, red hots, and other chewy things that practicly ripped your teeth out of your head. Had to do it on the sly – candy was off limits in our house. medeska

In the north bronx in the…

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In the north bronx in the late sixties early seventies, box ball remained a game of hitting a pinky or spaldeen with your hand into your opponents box. He or she, in turn, would need to return the ball to your box before the ball bounced more than once. Points could only be scored on your serve. Depending on the differing skills of the players, additional rules governing the way the ball could be “served” applied, usually requiring that the ball be served with a certain amount of arch on it to allow the receiver a better chance of returning it.