Category Archives: Locales

I am from Flushing Queens,…

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I am from Flushing Queens, where we would usually buy Pensie Pinkies and Spaldeens from Joe’s, which was the nearest candy store. Sometimes when I had no money, I ‘d swipe a Pensie from my sister, who, along with her friends, used them mostly in an activity that involved keeping the ball in bounce while reciting different rhymes that were punctuated by passing their legs over the ball before it would bounce back up. I lived on a hill where many of these balls ended up in the sewer at the end of the block. You could retrieve them using a garden rake, but if they remained in the water too long, they almost certainly went dead. We used to play stick ball, box ball, Chinese handball, catch a fly and you’re up, and many, many more games using them. As I recall, the favored brand for stickball at least, was Spalding, but I never observed too much difference between the two.

What a fun site brings back…

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What a fun site brings back such wonderful memories of youth! I grew up in Brooklyn during the 70’s and during the summer all the kids on the block (and it seemed everywhere in NYC) would play Skelsies (or Skully), morning til night, we’d even play it under city street lamps. The most popular cap that we used was typically a milk jug cap and we would fill it with either melted crayon or putty clay as well. But, I haven’t seen any children play this game in years, seems as if the game has disappeared. But, what great memories of a fun game played on the streets of my youth.

I played Skelsies in the…

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I played Skelsies in the 70’s in the Vladeck Housing projects on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. I played so much in the summer that my knees were permanently black with dirt all summer long. I discovered the gray lids from the 35mm film worked great with a little melted crayon. I would float a dime in the middle for style and weight. There were quite a few fights due to the Slappsies which shot the opposing cap down the block. I miss the simpler times. Now with giutar Hero you just don’t get the neighborhood feel. Thanks for the warm memories.

I grew up in SW Philly near…

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I grew up in SW Philly near 68th and Woodland Avenues. We played Buck-Buck, but the first person on the team being jumped on wrapped his arms around a telephone pole. Once, one of the guys on the jumping team jumped so far he knocked himself out when he slammed into the pole. My friend’s brother broke his instep when he was the last guy bending over and the last jumper missed the stack and landed on his foot, which had the toes to the ground and heel up in the air. Ouch! The younger kids in our neighborhood played “shadow tag” at night. If you were “it”, instead of tagging someone you had to step on their shadow. Another game for younger kids was “Red Light, Green Light”. We also played various forms of “chicken”, which usually involved running in front of a car and seeing how close you could get without getting run over. In the winter if there was snow on the ground, we’d “ski” on the streets by grabbing hold of the back of a bus when it stopped and getting pulled along when it started to move.

Oh, the memories. Spaldeens…

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Oh, the memories. Spaldeens ruled, anything else was second rate. I keep one in my car to this day. In the Dyker Heights section we used the Spaldeen for everything,slap ball, punch ball , handball, cather-flyers-up, stoop ball, box ball, stickball. Didn’t know pensies existed till we moved to Nassau County. We would use them if local candy store was out of spaldeens or we couldn’t put together the 25 cents for the real deal.

Im from East New York Brooklyn…

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Im from East New York Brooklyn 11207 to be exact..Born in 78.. – so, Im talking to a friend in V.A. about classic games from our childhoods…I mentioned “skelly” and He looks at me with “THAT” face and thought I was Making it up…It was more than a Game to us, they will never get it….Glad to see you all, Those who Know… First thing every summer morning for us was “skelly”..BEST CAPS – We played with two types…The plastic TWIST caps from the gallon of milk container and the smaller pop off tops of the milk/Juice containers…melted candle wax was always my preference because you could always change the colors and add and remove wax for different techniques…BEST COURT- Over Black smooth tar in the summer…(AMBOY st. between Blake and Sutter in Brownsville)…The Great Ole Days…

I was raise in Brooklyn,…

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I was raise in Brooklyn, NY and we used to play that game on roadtrips in the family car. We also played a different version of this game, that we called “punch car” in which you would slug the other player each time one of you spotted a Volkswagon Beetle car (which were also known as Volkswagon “Bugs” to us). But first, you would point at the “Bug” and yell out “punch car” before throwing your punch. We had fun playing these games until someone would punch to hard and a fight would break out in the back seat that usually ended when one of our parents would reach back from the front seat and slap everyone!!! Ha, Ha. I really miss the old days.

I grew up in Gravesend, Brooklyn…

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I grew up in Gravesend, Brooklyn (West Street and Ave. U) in the 50’s. I remember Spaldeens being our ball of choice for almost all street games. I also remember using Pensie Pinkey’s but I dont remember them being more expensive than a Spaldeen. We would only use a Pensie for box ball or in situations where a Spaldeen ball could be easily lost or stolen. By the way, does anyone remember 4-box baseball and War?

IT WAS THE 60’S. Growing…

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IT WAS THE 60’S. Growing up in Mid-town Manhatten, East 79th St. to be exact. EVERY SINGLE DAY after school (PS 190 on 82nd st.) the Chinese Handball Games got started. It was me and Dennis Gross, Toby Edwards, Cam, Seth Rosten, and some other guys. We would play for hours. 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock, 4:45 pm we would start to leave, but there was always a couple of guys who would hold out until the very end… right up til the time the streetlights would come on. Once they started to flicker, you better run home, because it meant you were right at the supper deadline. If you were late, you didn’t eat. That was the rules. Anyway, Chinese Handball ruled, and we didn’t like it when the losing kids would leave early, because it meant we couldn’t nail ’em with Asses Up. Man, those were the days – so innocent. It seems like a dream. But, it really happened. I was there. I saw America when it played – before it lost it’s soul. I grew up in an America that had heart. Now, people just want to have virtual fun, play artificial games, and rather than having the heart to pursue their own passions, they sit at home, content to watch reality shows in which other people pursue their passions. Man, I would love to play just one more game of Chinese handball with Dennis and Toby. You guys out there, anywhere?

I grew up in NJ in the 80s…

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I grew up in NJ in the 80s but one of our teachers grew up in Hell’s Kitchen in the 50s and taught us this great game. I remember the time I spent at night trying to perfect the best skelly cap using a soda bottle top, penny in the bottom and melting (and trying to swirl) various colors of crayons. My skill at this rewarded me with my first business venture, charging 50 cents to a dollar for my product!! I can’t wait to teach my children this game!!