Category Archives: Queens

Hey, my sister learned a…

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Hey, my sister learned a similar song made up of product names from a friend at camp (80s), and taught it to me. She couldn’t remember it, but I found it one a website. I also found the older one that someone mentioned on this board… I know the one she knew is a bit different, I’ll ask her what’s different and post it too. The tune is kinda similar to the “Miss suzy had a baby” one. Here are both versions from the site: As I was walking down the street one dark and gloomy day I came upon a billboard and much to my dismay The sign was torn and tattered from the storm the night before The wind and rain had done it’s work and this it what I saw Smoke Coca-Cola Cigarettes, chew Wrigley’s Spearmint beer Ken-L Ration Dog Food keeps your wife’s complexion clear Simonize your baby with a Hershey’s candy bar And Texaco’s the beauty cream that’s used by all the stars So take your next vacation in a brand new Fridgidaire Learn to play piano in your winter underwear Doctors say that babies should smoke until they are three And people over 65 should bathe in Lipton Tea Here is the older version: As I was walking down the street a billboard met my eye. The advertising that was there would make you laugh or cry. The wind and rain had almost washed that old billboard away. But the advertising painted there would have that billboard say: Have a smoke of Coca-Cola. Chew catsup cigarettes. Watch Lillian Russell wrestle with a box of Cascarets. Pork and beans will meet tonight in a finish fight. Hear Chauncey DePeeuw speak upon sapolio tonight. Bay rum is good for horses; it is the best in town. Castoria cures the measles, if you pay ten dollars down. Teeth extracted without pain, a nickel or a half a dime. Ingersolls are selling now, a little behind the times. Chew Wrigleys for that headache. Eat Campbells for that cough. There’s going to be a swimming bee at the village watering trough. Buy a case of ginger-ale, it makes the best of broth. Shinola’s good to curl the hair, it will not rub it off!

I’ve only bumped into one…

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I’ve only bumped into one other person who remembers playing what we called “Salughterhouse”, back in East NY in the fifties/sixties, and he lived in Queens. Basically, one person played american style handball wil a spaldeen (harder) or pinkie (softer, bouncier). His job, while maintaining the flow of a solitaire handball game, was to strike one of several other players on the fly with the ball. The other players, typically three or four, were lined up against the wall facing the handballer, with on foot on the wall at all times. Their job was to avoid being struck, and/or to catch the ball on the fly, ending the handballer’s serve, and taking the role themselves. Our games took place along the sidewall of the Biltmore Theater on Wyona St. at New Lotts Ave. It’s long wall was about 20ft high and 75ft long, one of the great handball venues of East NY. It also had a recessed high wall about 20ft wide and 40ft high, with about thirty feet of pavement at the base. It made for the fabulous off-the-wall baseball games (until the theater owners would come out and chase us away).

Most people don’t realize…

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Most people don’t realize that all the pigeons in New York City are feral (gone wild) descendants of domesticated pigeons kept on the rooftops as pets, for sport, for show and for food earlier in the century. (Pigeons of the type we know are not native to the U.S.) When you see a flock of wild pigeons spontaneously leap into the air and fly around in circles in a tight group, you are seeing the behavior their ancestors were bred to perform by rooftop pigeon fanciers. The breeders selectively intensified the natural behavior of the birds to fly out from the nest, forage for food, and return to the nest, resulting in specialized strains that can find their home lofts from long distances, covering 500 miles a day (homers), birds that can fly above their loft in circles continuously for 15-20 hours (tipplers, or as they are called only in New York, “tiplets”), aerial acrobats that spin backwards in a series of multiple somersaults (rollers), as well as the garden variety of New York flyers that circle above their rooftops in tight groups, trying to get the neighbor’s birds to defect to them. As a resident of suburban Bayside, Queens in the ’60’s and ’70’s, I kept pigeons, which I was first exposed to by “urban flight” neighbors, who came out of the inner boroughs, bringing their tradition of rooftop pigeon keeping with them. Pigeons, of course, are much maligned, especially for their dirtiness. All I can say is that domesticated pigeons, when fed dry grain and clean water, are clean animals. If you put a pan of water out on a sunny day they will even take a bath. It’s like the difference between an observer’s perception of a homeless person and one who has shelter, clean clothes, and eats good food. My Web site about Bayside in those times is: http://www.covername.net/bayside Dave T.

Does anyone out there remember…

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Does anyone out there remember all the steps involved in a game called “Russian”???? We used to play it in Queens in the mid-60’s…..involves a “pinky” thrown again an apt.wall while doing a bunch of things in numerical order…. Also, I remember Chinese Handball too (and Saludgee…sp?)- also, in Queens in the mid-60’s played on the street against apt.retention walls….

i grewup in queens rochdale…

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i grewup in queens rochdale village i remember many friday and sat.nites going downtown to the fillmoure east and seeing some of the best music of our times at the late show ill allso never forget comming home at 4 or 5;00 in the morning and waiting for the bus at parsons blvd.and having the best pizza i ever had.these were the best days of my life and i woulding change them for anything.i just want to thank all my freinds for making this possible.love wayne

I can picture a brand new…

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I can picture a brand new spaldeen vividly today, almost smell it. What a great feeling to go to the local “candy store” and buy a new spaldeen. Always preferable to a pensy pinky, which were also good.We used spaldeens in stickball, punchball, fungo, slapball, A’s-up,stoopball, and different “box games”-boxball, box baseball, five boxes, hit the penny, etc., in Bayside, Queens. As far as Johnny Pump goes, it brings to mind the old game “Johnny on the Pony”. I would love to buy some spaldeens, if there is a place to order them, I’d like to know.

Lets see, its “Sataday mornin”…

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Lets see, its “Sataday mornin” and i’m “siten” in front of my b/w Admrial with my best friend Warren ( he lives one fence away ). Were “eaten” a box of cherrios “watchen” Andys Gang. I love Froggy!! Oh,Oh!! Pops up!! Better beat it before he finds me “sumpum” to do.Jump on the bikes and take off down to the park. Ahhh, the park!! I’m in my world. Handball and skully all day. Take a break and get on the swings, if you go high enough you can jump onto the fence right in front of ya.( P.S.117and217 Jamaica,Queens. I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!! Anybody out there?? I lived on the GCP between 150st and Parsons Blvd.Late 50’s /early 60’s. How bout sock ball?? Roll some socks up tight in a ball, and play like punch ball.I think we did this when nobody could afford a ball.Anyway, see ya!