I’m 36 and played skelzies in Greenpoint/Williamsburg Brooklyn in the late 70’s early 80’s. Hours and hours of fun… I made my daughter a skelzies cap today… going out to the playground in the afternoon.
I played Johhny on the Pony during the early 80’s in Greenpoint/Williamsgurg Brooklyn. Also played Chinesse handball, Boxball, Stoopball, etc; but those are other great stories. Most memorible JOP story is when we actually convinced the girls that hung out with us in a schoolyard over on Havermyer st. to play JOP with us guys!!! Well needless to say, those of you who’ve played the game know the position you take being on the pony. That was the first time I put my arms around Lisa Ninziata’s waist. Wow, I was in heaven… pure bliss… until I turned my head toward the other team, just in time to catch a glimse of her then boyfriend Bobby’s sneaker as it slammed me on the side of the head, almost ripping my ear off. Well, this being perfectly leagal in JOP; I had to wait till my teams turn for retaliation. Later I would throw mu body, with full force at Bobby with elbows leading the way. And, in the end we would laugh ourselves to tears as Anthony’s radio played “The Piano Man”. What days those were… my best memories.
I remember growin’ up in Jamaica Queens, actually Rochdale village building 11 PLAY GROUND AREA. any way…..summer of 1980 ’til 82 it was popular. If you threw your top and it landed in box 1, that was considered an automatic POP so you got to go to 13 and hit the numbers backwards upon completion you had to complete landing in the trapazoid shapes surrounding the number 13. As you got into each box you would say I – AM-A-KILLER-DILLER. As you became KD you had to ask all the others players for “a corner”. The player had to choose one of those 4 outer corners. This was the corner that the Killer Diller had to put his top in the corner and BLAST your top out of square you were in. And he repeated for the remaining players What a memory…we settled our grievences …in game not violence. A frequently heard popular summertime shout would be “HEY, who wanna getta game?” and it was understood that the game that would get got was Skelly. Well that’s how it went down that sweltering Wednesday late afternoon in summer of ’81…Dellick got an automatic pop and within 7 minutes he called me from my corner and blasted me out of the game. Actually I heard the shout“KILLA DILLA” many times during that sweltering summer.” Hey Gary, Erik, Dellick,Willie, and Kim, where are you now?”And i shoulda known….. ’cause it was just a Jamaica tale!
I remember growin’ up in Jamaica Queens, actually Rochdale village building 11 PLAY GROUND AREA. any way…..summer of 1980 ’til 82 it was popular. If you threw your top and it landed in box 1, that was considered an automatic POP so you got to go to 13 and hit the numbers backwards upon completion you had to complete landing in the trapazoid shapes surrounding the number 13. As you got into each box you would say I – AM-A-KILLER-DILLER. As you became KD you had to ask all the others players for “a corner”. The player had to choose one of those 4 outer corners. This was the corner that the Killer Diller had to put his top in the corner and BLAST your top out of square you were in. And he repeated for the remaining players What a memory…we settled our grievences …in game not violence. A frequently heard popular summertime shout would be “HEY, who wanna getta game?” and it was understood that the game that would get got was Skelly. Well that’s how it went down that sweltering Wednesday late afternoon in summer of ’81…Dellick got an automatic pop and within 7 minutes he called me from my corner and blasted me out of the game. Actually I heard the shout“KILLA DILLA” many times during that sweltering summer.” Hey Gary, Erik, Dellick,Willie, and Kim, where are you now?”And i shoulda known….. ’cause it was just a Jamaica tale!
In the 70’s in N.E. Philly on our street we played a game called One Foot Off the Ice. It was a tag game that was played from one curb to the other. One person was IT they stood in the middle of the street all other players stood on the curb. When the IT person called one foot off the ice, all the others would take the biggest leap they could, the first foot that hit the street was your pivet foot, you couldn’t move it until you were ready to sprint to the other side. As long as you didn’t move it you couldn’t be tagged. If your tagged when your trying to get across you become part of the IT team in the middle. If you made it to the other side you could run back in and tag another who could then walk freely to the other side, however you could then be tagged. Also a human chain could be made to get someone who hadn’t crossed yet, if the chain was broken anyone who was not attached was an IT person. The game would continue from one curb to the other until the final person is tagged. Then the game would start over with the first person tagged being the IT person in the next round. We played for hours.
I grew up in Southwest Philly. We played box ball, wire ball, stick ball, step ball, etc. We also played Kick the Can, which was like Jailbreak. Somebody was “it”. Everyone else had to hide. The person who was it had a can and a jail. They had to identify the person that they saw hiding, grab the can and bang it on the street saying 1-2-3 I see Joe hiding behind Mr. Doyle’s car. If that was right, the person would go in the jail. The rest of the people had to try to sneak up the street to kick the can to free anyone in jail and hide before the person who was “it” saw you. It could take awhile before you caught everyone if you were it. What a thrill to kick the can and set everyone free. You were a hero for a minute. I also remember Hide the Belt and Buck Buck and Break the Golden Gate. I wish that I had a whole pimple ball. I have one half ball left.
In the late 1960s there used to be a massive day long Johnny-on-the-Pony fest at the bottom of the stairs next to Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. It was a pick up game with several ponies lined up next to one another, probably 100 players or more at a time on any given Saturday. Fans would be lined up along the wall at the top of the stairs looking down at the action and cheering whenever the pony filled with riders and one more runner came leaping aboard. It was truly an authentic New York experience. At 125 pounds, I was an observer at these “semi-pro” games, but enjoyed playing in school. No one seemed to notice or care that so many of our activities were perilous. We continued to shoot half paper clips at each other with rubber band launchers after Mario gained a glass eye. Nowadays you can’t even find a set of metal monkey bars set on a rough concrete pad. Man those hurt.
I was listening to my 12yo son and his cousin playing in the yard when scully came to mind. So I rushed to my computer and did a search. This websight was one of the results. I used to play scully back in the mid to late 50’s at the P.S. 39 playground in Queens, NY during the summer. The board was painted on the ground but I don’t remember if it was concrete or asphalt. The Park’s Dept. officer would hold tournaments weekly. There were no prizes. You just got your name posted as the “champ”. I’m going to teach my son the game. Hopefully, he’ll like it and get scully going here in California. Bob Schulken/Escondido, CA
Rochester, N.Y. We called the game Saddle the Donkey. The pillar would call the move as the jumper leaped. Shift left or right or break. The object of breaking was to let the jumper land on the ground. This was usually done to some hotshot type.Some times we would get the Donkey swaying left right or up down. The jumpers’ big move was to do the quick load with every one coming on in close succession. Sometimes we would have as many as ten on a side. Several years there were city wide competion. Charles-Oscar
I grew up in sheepshead bay, brooklyn in the 90s where we played manhunt. We had a tree out in front of my friends house which was the base and where one of the teams counted from. there was no jail for us. if you got caught then you were out. the object was to get more than half of your team back to base. if you did then you got to hide again. if you didnt then you had to count. you got the kid when grabbed him and yelled out manhunt, manhunt 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3. did anyone else play like us?