Category Archives: Locales

P.S.114 in Canarsie was…

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P.S.114 in Canarsie was the place to go for a game of stickball, handball, football, basketball, skulley, Johnny on the Pony, Marbles, Knock Hockey, Punchball, Pitching nickels against the wall or the line, ringalevio, war, slapball and softball just to name a few. There was even some weird guy from Czeckloslavokia who used to hit a soccer[?] ball off his head, {what a strange boring game} but we could never get the ball from him. Glory Days! Mousey

Last year I had the occassion…

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Last year I had the occassion of setting up a skully board in Brooklyn. We were talking to some cops (from the Bronx) who also remember using this “Board of Ed” skully piece too, back in 6th grade So exactly how did you pry off the bottom of the chair? By the way – good luck teaching your kid – but perhaps you should leave this part out of the instructions!

Hey – I’m a guy (from Jamaica…

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Hey – I’m a guy (from Jamaica Queens), but I have a “kid” sister – mid 40s now. She and her silly girlfriend used to play all these games, giggling non-stop. I wonder if her friend still has that laugh! I recall some game called concentration – I don’t know if a ball or clapping was involved. They’d say “Concentration letter A, may I repeat the letter A, because I like the letter A, Alice begins with the letter A. Right through the whole alphabet. Drove me nuts!

Never could get double dutch…

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Never could get double dutch either – also from Brooklyn. But jumping rope was a lot of fun. I remember the first time I was able to jump into the rope from the outside. It was some kind of timing issue. Some people looked so cool while they stood there getting ready to join in the game. Any one play chinese jump rope? If so how? Did you make chinese jump ropes out of lots of found rubber bands? Did you use double or single ropes?

Hello all I grew…

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Hello all I grew up on 165th street and the grand concourse in the bronx and we played skulley every day. I’m fairly sure we pronounced it skulley, but skelley could have been it. My favorite caps were made from the bottom of school chairs. It was a real labor prying of those rubber fillers with the nail in the middle, but well worth it. In fact today, I popped open some beer bottles and melted crayons to make some caps to teach my 9 year old son and 5 yr old daughter. I found this sight looking for refresher on the rules. I remember us starting from a start lines outside of the skulley board and then working 1 to 13 forward and then backwards and then we were crowned or something and could really kick butt at that point. I would love to see the full rules posted and variations from different neigborhoods would be cool too. take care all

Here’s how we played in…

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Here’s how we played in Rochdale Village in Queens circa late 1960’s: We also used bottle caps weighed down with melted crayons. I remember Mom getting pissed when some dripped inside her newly cleaned oven. After awhile, some guys used the plastic caps that came on the “new” plastic milk containers. We quickly outlawed the larger jar caps, especially the Motts Apple Sauce caps. Our box was a prepainted “boxball” court (there’s another great game)that was approx. 6’x6′. Each numbered box, done up in chalk, was about 6″x6″. “Running out of town” was prohibited! If I remember correctly, after running 1 – 13 and then 13 – 1, you had to go around the “Skelly” before you became a Killer. You had to hit a guy three times to get him out. Obviously, you would try to line up that third hit so that you could blast him out of the playground – just to rub it in a little.

I still rue the day that…

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I still rue the day that Good Humor discontinued my favorite bar: It was called “Chocolate Cake” — it had chocolate ice cream inside, and the outside was…well, it was sort of like dark chocolate cake! This was also in the “old days”, before they had that “candy in the middle.” Good Humor also made a seasonal special: A red white & blue icecream bar for the 4th of July — it had raspberry, vanilla and blueberry, and it was good! I never heard of Mr. Frostee, but of course we had Mister Softee… and we STILL have Mister Softee: In my current neighborhood, Chelsea/Flatiron, they’re all over, as well as on every other corner in midtown. Hmm… think I’ll run downstairs and get a chocolate shake. Wasn’t there also an icecream truck called “Pied Piper”? This would have been in Long Island, circa 1957-1963. For WEBDIVA: You mentioned the selter bottles, in blue. They also came in green. There was a company a few years ago called “GIMME SELTZER,” and yes, as in days gone by, they delivered seltzer by the case, in those wonderful original blue or green syphon bottles. I just looked in the Manhattan phone book and there is NO listing… uh-oh, did they go out of business?? I will investigate further and see if I can find them.

I came from South Brooklyn,…

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I came from South Brooklyn, and we called it skellzees. In our neighborhood, in the late 60s, we only used bottle caps. Nothing larger was allowed. We weighted them down with melted crayons — in all colors. Some of the houses on our street had slate sidewalks, and they were the best to play on. The bottlecaps would just glide across. Makes me want to play again!!