I played in the 30s in California, and we used milk bottle caps. (Some of them were considered quite rare like buttermilk caps from different dairies.) We were between six and twelve, and played on any hard surface, in a circle. When your milk bottle cap landed on top of somebody else’s cap, theirs was eliminated from the board and you got to keep it. If all your caps were eliminated, you were out.
I used to play in East New York, Brooklyn I taught MY sons the game Many years later, from about 5 Years old they loved it and so did the neighborhood kids, In this age of video games it would be great to see a comeback of the game, I hear that someone patented a simular game for indoors on a baord. If anyone has any info,I would like to hear more of it LennyM
I just wanted to say Thank you for this website! I played Skelsie growing up in Ridgewood (bordering Bklyn)and it was so much fun! Now that my boys are at the age I started playing it, I wanted to show them how but for the life of me couldn’t remember how to the board was layed out. Someone sent me this link and reading it brought back so many great memories. Thank you Ann Marie
Yeah Scully!I still have my bottlecaps from the 70’s!!! We used to melt crayons into the caps..which was one of my favorite parts of being a scully player. Played with my cousins in Deer Park, NY(Long Island). I’ve always thought about Scully…miss it…and always longed to play again…LOVE YOUR WEBSITE! THANKS for the memories and encouraging the reemergence of SCULLY!!
Today I tought some of the niegborhood kids how to play skelzee (that was what we called it where i grew up in the early `80s downtown Brooklyn) anyway i was amazed that they never heard of the game before and not suprised at how much thet enjoyed playing it. 3 hours later thier still out there
Skully is known by many names–the similar sounding variations generally vary by neighborhood, though I certainly heard “skelly” as well as “skully” in the Bronx. I think that the sing-song quality of “skelzee/skelzies” is extended from the original “skully/skelly” in much the same way as people shooting for the the 2-box would proclaim they were “going for twosies.” As Snoop Dogg would say, “by any name, skelzizzle is off the hizzle for shizzle, dizzle.”
I played skelly as a youngster growing up in Baltimore. We used to play on a painted box in the street. We used to use plastic tops from gallons of milk. We would fill them w/ hot asphallt from the street. It was hard sometimes looking for fresh oil spots in the street to dig up the asphalt. However, it was a necessity b/c this made the asphalt soft enough to dig up with an icecream stick :-). I spent many mornings underneath parked cars looking for oil leaks! -Moe
Just found this site and noticed that most of the posts were from Brooklyn and the Bronx. I grew up on Staten Island in the ’60’s and early 70’s in the Stapleton Houses, and spent many days playing skully in the park. We had skully boards already painted on the park grounds by the housing management.Bright yellow! In reading the postings I noticed the names of other games we used to play:Hot peas and butter, red light-green light, etc. Brought back some good memories. One game I haven’t seen was called black tar, or cau cau, I think. I was only about 8 at the time. Anyway, thanks for a great site.