We did “once-twice-three-shoot” but choosing up usually meant that opposing captains would take turns alternating hand over hand on a bat. Whichever guy’s hand reached the end would have to swing it in a circle three times without letting go. If successful, that person would get to pick first (At least that’s what my feeble memory tells me).
I grew up in West New York, NJ. I lived by St. Mary’s Church on the northwest side of town. Growing up in the late 70’s we used to play “bottle caps”. We had a board that was carved right into the street at the entrance to the park. It was painted blue with red boxes. Very professional. We used to hang out there all day playing. We used bottle caps filled with crayon and pennies for added weight. Some of also melted metal to make’em real heavy. We basically played the same way as the rules on this site state, but we had an interesting twist. We played with what was called “sweeping”. If you landed in a box and someone was outside of that box less than a hand laid flat on the ground away you could litterly take that person cap and sweep it down the block. We also had “chucking” and “sewering”. Chucking was just basically picking up the other persons cap and throwing it a block away or onto the church roof. Sewering was when you swept someones cap into the sewer. Big fun. I used to love it. Went through a lot of caps though. I haven’t seen anyone playing it in a long time. I’m glad people remember such a great game. Also, surrounding 13 was what we called the “pit”. No number just P in each box, so no bonus for knocking anyone out.
Hi Steve… I was playing Skellies up in the Bronx (Tremont & Fordham Rd areas) in the late 1960’s through the late 1970’s. If I had known about prescription caps back then, I would have been the undisputed KING OF SKELLIES. Here I am thinking I was doing my thing with the metal caps (taken from the bottom of the chairs in elementary school) with wax, the penny and the whole nine. Next time I will remember. Joe Bronx, NY
P.S. I forgot to thank you for this great website. When I remember skully/skelly, I also have fond memories of having fun outside on hot summer afternoons. I’ve e-mailed your site to my relatives spread out round the country so they may also enjoy this bit of nostalgia. Thanks again. Steve Brown Huntington, NY
I grew up in the early 60’s on Lacombe Avenue in the Castle Hill Avenue projects in the Bronx. We were privilaged enough to have a skully (skelly) board neatly painted in yellow on the playground area outside. We experimented with a myriad of bottle cap types and fillers. The best “shooters” were the little white (soft) plastic prescription bottle tops. (This pre-dates child-proof caps.) Since the precription bottle caps were much lighter than metal bottle caps, we would weight each of them down with a penny and then fill the cap up to the top with candle or crayon wax. When the wax dryed, we would rub the top of the cap on the ground until it was super-smooth. The plastic precription bottle caps were the best shooters. When you would shoot one, it would ride smoothly along the ground, travel farther than a metal bottle cap, and, with the weight of the penny, it had enough weight to smash a competitor’s cap a mile away. I moved to Long Island, NY when I was 12 and miss playing skully.
I was a child in Gerritsen Beach Brooklyn in the early 70’s before moving to rural Virginia in 1976. For years I have described this game to people (primarily transplants from NY) and until today have never found anyone who remembers, even my sister and brothers only have very vague memories of it. The one game that I really missed playing was skully after we moved. I was just in Brooklyn last week and I asked my much younger cousin if they had ever played, but she had no idea what I was talking about. I decided to look up “street games” tonight and lo and behold, here I am. I am definately going to teach both of my kids to play. As I read the directions, I realized that my memory of this game was pretty good, except I remember a tail of sorts going down from the “1” square that I think you finished down. not too sure about that. My favorite part of the game was making the bottle caps with melted wax crayons. I was so happy to find all your posts, fellow skully afficionados! Skully on!
Thank you for creating this site. I grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn in the early 70’s and have many fond memories of playing skully. While reminising with old friends about all the games we played, I decided to search on the internet. Thank you for clearing up our fuzzy memories of all the rules. I plan on marking up my driveway and practicing my skills again.
Oh, yeah. Haven’t heard that word in a l-o-o-o-ng time. But yes, it’s spontaneous keep-away, usually to torture someone! Laurelton, Queens, late 50s, early 60s.
Does any one remember this game? We played it in the streets of Brooklyn in the 1960s.