I grew up in Bayside, Queens,My Mom still lives in the same house.It was ringoleevio.I don’t remember thr rule. We also playe stickball with a broomhandle and a spaldeen.We also played punchball.skelly,boxball,stoopball and Chinesehandball The girls and sometimes th boys played Hop scotch,potsie?, jacks. Then there was Johnny on the Pony also known as Buc-Buc. I think all of this is almost gone
How many of you folks ever played “buck-buck” ?? One team leader crouched by a fence, holding it with both hands, presenting his back parallel to the ground. The other kids on his team lined up behind him in similar fashion… The opposing team would take a running start and leap onto the backs of the crouchers, one at a time. The jumper would shout..”Buck-buck, how many horns are up??” as he (she) held up one or more fingers of a hand…..
I grew up in the Bronx and we played games like “Hot Peas And Butter and Johnny on the Pony” but does anyone remember “kick the Can?” Someone would throw a can as far as he could and the person that was “IT” would retrieve the can and get back to base as fast as he could, “backwards”, while the other kids would run and hide. The object of the game was for the kid that was “IT”, to find everyone while protecting the can from being kicked. The kid that was “IT” would spot a hiding kid and run back to the can and while tapping the can would yell out who he spotted and where the kid was, thus capturing the kid. If a kid, who was not caught, kicked the can, which would free all the kids that were caught and keep the kid that was “IT” still “IT”.
growing up in the Bronx in the 1930’s i vividly remember playing the game of this chat group. I don’t recall what we called it, but i do remember that you would try to pile on top of the weakest link so as to cave in the group. it was a lot of fun and as one has remarked, i don’t recall any injuries other than hurt pride. also, only the boys would play this, no girls were involved, as it was probably too undignified for them plus the danger.
I grew up on the lower east side of Manhattan in the late 50’s early 60’s. I am sure we called the game SKELLZIE. Our day would start off with a visit to the A&P on Bleecker and Leroy st. There we would, err……… borrow a cap from a Prell shampoo bottle, (it was plastic and tappered from top to bottom). It held lots of wax and your favorite, lucky penny. We would then go to the public park on Carmine street and play the game. The guy that worked for the parks deptartment, Rocky, was good enough to paint a Skellzie board on the ground for us. As I can remember, Rocky was a great guy always willing to do things for the kids in the neighborhood. I can’t remember the size of the board, although I’m sure what seemed very large back then probably wasn’t so. I don’t think the board could have been much more than 5’X 9′. When we tired of playing the game we would play Buck-Buck, Box Ball, Stoop Ball, and maybe if it was hot enough go for a swim in the Hudson. Things have certainly changed in 40 years, oh well! Any way, looking forward to seeing the final version of the Skellzie board. Keep the faith. Mike
I overheard a conversation between my son and his friends about their Pokemon cards. My son had just got a very valuable card “Charizard,” a holigraphic card. His older friends (9 year olds) were shocked. “You got Charizard? How much did you have to pay for it?” At first he said “I don’t know,” then he said “oh yeah 10 bucks,” which is actually not so far off for the pack of ten. They as surprised at how cheap it was as we were realizing how expensive this could be. All the boys then proceeded to beg him to trade. He didn’t at first, but finally the temptation overwhelmed him and he relented to a deal. The other boy quickly called “No tradebacks.” As the details of the transaction spread around the block, the children concluded that the older boy had taken advantage of my son and the pressure began. “You should give him back the card,” they sai “I called no tradebacks.” “We’re not going to play with you anymore. We won’t even talk to you.” Evil potions were concocted made of soap, grass and leaves. The pressure was on. At first JJ claimed he had lost the card, but finally relented and the cards were re-exchanged. Everthing was back to how it had been and order was restored in the universe for the young children on the block.
We’re just starting to get into the groove here. There are many absolutely great reactions of people when they come by, look at the games and see the spaldeens. It takes them back to very fond memories. One guy is sending one to his sister in Texas. He’s not going to tell her – just have her get it and be surprised. Liz from Spalding is here with several hundred balls. We’ve been giving them to people if they contribute a few bucks to the Park Slope Baseball League. We’ve started the stickball fun. Anyone who wants to take a whack can come by and do it. Bob Catell, head of KeySpan Energy came by, put on one of our tee-shirts and took a few shots. At first he was a bit rusty, but then he clobbered one. Right in the middle of Bob’s turn a parade starts going by! Several hundred kids in a couple of marching bands. And here we aremoving out of the way as we try to manage the event and record it on the Internet. What a scene! We will post shots of it soon.
I grew up on 181st between Vyse and Bryant in the Bronx. (right around the corner from the Bronx Zoo-South enterance “West Farms Square”) We called it skully. Had to go 1-13 and around the center and back down to become a killer. If you ended up in the sections around 13 you were stuck till someone hit you out. We all had different size caps filled with wax. When it rained we played on the linoleum in my bedroom (6 story walk up) that had flowers located in the in the shape of the “skully”. I am now a Phys Ed teacher in Phoenix and we play skully, stickball, one wall handball, off the curb, punch ball and Johnny on the Pony. The kids love thses games and I really enjoy the memories while playing with them.