another vote for hit the penny here flatbush ave and rutland road mid 50’s all the italians loved hit the penny and running bases,stoop ball of course and eating red pistachios on the stoop… memories good fun…
DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THE BALL GAME CALLED “I DECLARE WAR” WHERE A LARGE CIRCLE WAS DRAWN IN THE STREET WITH CHALK AND PORTIONED OFF LIKE A PIE FOR THE NUMBER OF PLAYERS EACH OF WHOM WOULD CHOSE A COUNTRY TO REPRESENT THEM AND WRITE THE NAME IN THIER COUNTRY IN THAT SECTION….THE BALL WAS BOUNCED AS HARD AS THE FIRST PLAYER COULD BOUNCE IT YELLING “I DECLARE WAR ON (WHATEVER) COUNTRY HE CHOSE” AND EVERYONE WOULD SCATTER. THE DECLARED COUNTRY PLAYER HAD TO RETRIEVE THE BALL AND YELL FREEZE (EVERYONE FROZE STILL). HE THEN TRIED TO HIT A FROZEN PLAYER WITH THE BALL…IF HE WAS SUCCESSFUL HE GOT TO CARVE OUT A PIECE OF THAT PLAYERS COUNTRY (USUALLY THE SIZE OF HIS FOOT SQUARED) AND WRITE HIS COUNTRY’S NAME IN IT…IF HE MISSED WITH HIS THROW THE PLAYER ATTACKED COULD CUT OUT A PIECE OF THAT PLAYERS COUNTRY AND CLAIM IT AS HIS….AND SO ON TILL THE WORLD WAS OCCUPIED BY THE BEST PLAYER (OR YOU MOTHER CALLED YOU HOME FOR SUPPER OR DARKNESS)…LET ME KNOW IF YOU REMEMBER THIS GAME. ANDREW BROOKLYN 1949 – 1962
I am a teacher of English from Poland (in Europe ) and I teach in a primary school. In a coursebook for 11-year-olds there is a short article about “Street Games” in the USA and one of them is skully! In Poland we have similar game where beer caps and chalk are used (I played it as a child). It is a kind of a simple race and you also try to finish the route (a long narrow chalk “road”) as first and eliminate your opponents. Anyway, I wanted to find out more about skully and noticed this site. It is fantastic! And I am going to wait until spring and then teach my pupils to play skully! I do hope they like it Thanks a lot! Dorota …
From Alfie:; does anyone remember “Johnny on the Pony”? ..A famous game we played in Williamsburg Brooklyn
In the east Bronx we played many different variations. Many of our own making. We never played with a ring. We played hit and span or shoot for the sewer or cut out slots in shoe boxes. Even had a marbles racing game my brother made.
This site has so much potential – can’t you get rid of the spam?
what is the variation of marbles called when you have the shooter in the center of the ring and players take turns with smaller marbles,and try to shoot the shooter out of the ring?
I use to play Johnny on the pony on Arnow avenue in the Bronx in the Early Seventees along with Ring o Levio in the courtyard between the 2 buildings. In Johnny, One team would have a guy standing with his back against the wall Called the Pillow while his team members all crouched down in the opposite direction one after the other with the first guys head in the pillows stomach. The object of the game was for the other team one by one would leap on to the backs of the crouched team and scooch up towards the pillow. They would win if they could get the crouched team to buckle and fall. If the crouched team held them then the teams would switch and the other team had the chance to leap and break the pony. I had a great innner city child hood. Things were so much simpler then.
I was the Killer of Killers in Skelly for a bunch of years growing up in East New York. Ruleed from Miller Ave to Essex St. along Fulton Ave. There is still a carved Skelly board that we called home field on Van Siclen Ave. between Fulton St. and Atlantic Ave. Check it out. We carved that Skelly board in the 70’s. Still there!
Mr. J — Several smaller courts should be made with teams of 5-8 kids. Otherwise, a single game would take forever. And trust me, it’s skellzies. I played this in the early seventies in the South Bronx. Oh, and if it becomes popular, keep an eye out for kids using the coasters from school chairs as skellzie caps. They can be cut out, and then the rubber is dug out. They make perfect caps; heavy and slick. We used to take bottle caps, and then rub them on smooth concrete to a polish. Then we would take either crayons or green army men and melt them into the bottle cap for weight. …