It’s called “choosing up.” It wasn’t limited to using a bat though, in fact, the we I most commonly did it was choosing up “odds and evens,” also known as “once-twice-three-shoot.”
There is no social function in life that was more profound or important than hangin out on da stoop! My stoop on 113th St. in Richmond Hill Queens was the epicenter of the universe from the 60’s to the 80’s, it was a family tradition. My mom’s theroy was she always knew where we were. She was also the self appointed guardian and disciplinarian to every kid on the block. Also my grandmother kept them all fed! Now I live in Florida as does my entire family that moved from Queens. So now we teach our kids about hangin out. Only here we don’t have stoops, so we break out our beach chairs and hang out in the driveway. We call it “Trash Nite”, the Floridians in the neighbor still can’t figure us out, but there kids love learning to play kick the can, I Declare War,skelly, and much more. I’m proud to say at 45 I can still whip some butt in skelly!! I’m also teaching the unenlightened down here about stickball, fast pitch against the wall of coarse.
A-h-h !! Growin up in Richmond Hill,Queens..where does one begin!!! Skelly in the streets, stoop baseball (my house was “the stoop”), slapball, wiffleball, and everyones favorite S&M game Hot Beans & Butter!! Roller hockey in the steets, the rivalries..113th St. -vs- The World!!! Naturally any playground as part of a school was called “the schoolyard” and you never used P.S. you just said you were going to 62 to play stickball. There was the progressive growth of where you hung out and played ball. For us it was 62, Hill (H.S.),108,Smokey Park, 88th St. Park (on Atlantic Ave.), and of coarse as was stated before …”Mecca”- Victory Field !!! The playing fields where we left patches of our dungarees and flesh from sliding on the asphalt! Inner city fast pitch Softball on asphalt, there was nothing like it in the world!! Fast and furious!! “..those memories come back to haunt me…” So much fun so little time!!!!
Wow this brings back memories. In the 60s I lived in the Pink Houses projects off of Linden Blvd & Crescent St.My building was on Stanley Ave. I remember using chalk to make a Skully Court in the playground. I also remember the smell of melting crayons. I would put crayons in a baby food jar ( it could take the heat) and hold it over the stove to melt the wax. I loved filling bottle caps for Skully. I remember the pride we had in our wax filled caps. Sort of like a badge of honor. I can still smell the melting wax right now! This is a great walk down memory lane. Doubt that anyone in Tampa (home) would know what Skully is.
Sounds like some kind of freaky fetish fantasy. I know that if I’d snatched the heels off of my family’s shoes for some kids game, I’d be in the family plot.
I remember my mom putting me on a 5 day punishment that caused me to miss a hell of alot of skelly games,that was one time I was hoping to get my ass whipped so I could go back out and play. Turns out moms was pretty good skelly player herself. so she knew how much fun it was.K.B. 7th walk.