Marble season was big in the Sedgwick projects (West Bronx) –usually late summer. Each kid set up his own “carnival-type” game to try to win more marbles. For example, “one-plus-your-own” was typical in which you had to hit a valuable marble like a “beauty” to win it and your own back. I used to go through a whole pack in 2 hours. Not good.
Sliding pond was the only name we used to called them in Da Bronx. The monkey bars were made of steel and anything else we used to climb on (like the big turtles,the cheese and all the benches) was made of concreat. There was no such thing as rubber mats,wood mulch or any type of padding on the playgrounds in any of the playgrounds I grew up in. It was all concreat or black top. If you fell and got hurt you would run upstairs to your mom. She would patch you up,and you would be back downstairs playing again. Now a days when kids get hurt in the playground, from playing too hard or from there own fault for doing something stupid, like we all used to do. Do you remember hearing this saying in the playground ” Go head I dare you, Chicken” Usually means somebody was going end up getting hurt. Now the kids run inside to there parents. Then the parents take them to the Lawyers office looking to sue somebody for there kids stupidity. Do you remember Johnny Pumps (Fire hydrants)? Thats what we used to call them in my neighbor hood………..
Ding a ling!!! Ding a ling!!! Ding!!!! Ding!!!!! That sound was music to our ears. Growing up in a Garden apartment complex near Queens College, that sound would cause every kid on the block to stop whatever game they were playing, and run home or call up to their window for money. I lived on the second floor and I preferred to call up for money… (no cel phones then!) “MO-OM”!!! “The icecream Man is here!!!” In gobs of white tissue, my mother would throw down the required 15 cents, and off I’d go to buy icecream from the Good Humor Man. Cola or Blue italian ices were the “hot” items of my day. Our neighborhood Good Humor man man was a tall, thin, silverhaired, mustached man named Jack, whom everyone loved. Dressed in sparkling whites, (shirt, slacks, shoes) “Jack the icecream man” would let neighborhood kids ring his bell, and ride his truck for a block or two. It was such fun, and the high point of a summer’s day! Back then, delivery men were on a first name basis with their customers …. We had Jack the icecream man, Louie the eggman, and Milt the Milkman …
I remember getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning and going down to Fulton Fish Market with my mother to buy fish and crabs. I remember my mother never let me stand near her when she bought shrimp because she said if I ever saw the head of a shrimp, I’d never eat them again. I finally saw a shrimp with its head intact when I was in my 20s — my mother was right! Well, I do eat shrimp now, but I wouldn’t have if I’d seen those ugly heads as a child! I have vague memories of pushcarts on Avenue B — I vaguely remember men with beards and big coats pushing enormous pushcarts full of I-don’t-remember what. I remember seeing live chickens in small cages at the Essex Street Market and swearing I’d never eat anything that I’d seen alive. 🙂
Hey everyone, This is how the skully board typically looked on Grand Avenue in Da Bronx: http://www.westnet.com/~hmcnally/images/skully.gif Please notice that the numbers in “the skull” (the middle part) are 2-4-6-8. These were the bonus boxes you got for hitting someone out of that region. I realize some people used 1-2-3-4. I am not absolutely sure what numbers occupied which skull boxes, but this seems as good as any. We came up with a cool variant on the bonus box: one was the letter “K” (hit a person out, you become an instant killer). The other was an asterisk, which reversed where you were in the game (if you were going for “5-forwards”, you instantly plopped yourself into the 6 box and went for “5-backwards”). The 13-box is 25% of the size of a normal box. Because it’s small, we’d always hit someone for the one-box bonus instead of actually shooting for 13. The other alternative was to try to “creep up a line” of the skull. I remember the boxes being about 1 foot square, and spaced as in my drawing. I remember seeing other boards with huge boxes and tiny boxes, so I figure we were about average on Grand Ave. I should attempt to draw one now and measure it; the box spacing could be significantly different, and the proof would be in the playing. We ultimately used spray paint to draw the board because we got tired of drawing it in chalk! Did anyone have any other variants? I’d love to know. Cool cinema fact: you can see a skully board in some overhead shots of the Scorsese film “Mean Streets.” -HMM
What a feast. From the Marshmaloow Cookies between two vanilla wafers, to the great Hero Sands at the local Deli in Brooklyn. To the eggnogs at the local candy stores. To the great Hot Dogs at Ebbetts’s field. To the great Knishes. And to GOOD HUMOR trucks, and the Bungalow Bar trucks… And to Stoop Ball and all that… What a pleasure growing up in Brooklyn!!! Love the Stoties hear!!! Reference ID: B
I remember playing SPUD in Brooklyn on 93rd Street between Ditmas and Ave. B. I had 2 older sisters and lots and lots of kids on the block. Being one of the younger kids, I NEVER WON. Does anyone out there remember playing Russian 10? It was a “girls game” played with a Spalding ball.