Category Archives: Skully

I grew up in northeast phila…in…

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I grew up in northeast phila…in the ’60s we used to melt down solder and fill the bottlecaps to get some really deadly impact into the game. since the twistoff cap didn’t exist, the trick was to get the cap off the bottle without damaging the sides..this let you get the maximum amount of solder into the cap. We ended up making a rule (after some knock down and drag out fist fights) that the solder couldn’t crown over the top of the cap…it had to be flush…to try to equalize the game. My old man was an electrician, though, and the otherkids didn’t know that I was doping the caps with mercury. I would cast the lead around the mercury and my bombers were the B52’s of the block…

Hello to ALL- God This…

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Hello to ALL- God This is a great website! I can remember playing Skelly in my great childhood days in the Bayview Projects in Brooklyn. Rainbow Clay from StarValue, pennies in the middle of Sunnydale milk caps, “kicksies” and those cheap little Ballantine Ale caps with the wax melted in. These are all fond memories of a game I will teach my kids to play, as well as other greats like Ring-a-Leevio, Building Tag, Poison Ball and Off the Wall…

I grew up playing skully…

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I grew up playing skully on 57th street between 7th and 8th avenue in Brooklyn. My dad taught all the urchins how to play one day in the late 60’s. Stoop and stickball came later in life, I was only 8 at the time. We used chalk for awhile until dad came home with a 1/2″ paintbrush and a gallon of yellow line paint, (This was something special because at the time it was new… It had crushed glass in it for visibility) He worked for hours and routed traffic along the sides of the fresh paint until it was complete. Creating the sliding gems was fun for us but a disater for mom. she would spend hours scraping the wax off the stove after a gas bubble would splatter the liquid everywhere. Even our radiators had wax dribbles from making caps in the winter when we couldn’t wait to lay in the street again. Nickles were used to weigh the caps down, sometimes two were used. Then the polishing, endless circular swirls on the smooth asphalt street would be spent waiting for all steel bottom to show through the budweiser or mountain dew cap. We had poison traps on the field of play. The 13 was surrounded in the middle by a big poison trap that resembled a goofy looking skull. It was great fun and I’m considering putting a field in my basement or pouring a concrete pad out in the driveway so I can show the kids how to play.

I think this site is great.I…

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I think this site is great.I also think it’s great that you have such an organized collection of rules.I don’t rememberall these.I played this game so much from 1945-1950.I see from the site they are still playing it.Could you tell me where or post it on the site I’d love to watch if not compete.I can still play.and I think i still have my tops or i’ll make some.I neglected to say I played this game in South Philly [Graysferry section] and West Philly.

Igrew up in South Philly…

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Igrew up in South Philly Graysferry sectionand we use toplay what you call Skullys. We use to call it street checkers the same as Al politowlski called them.That was back in 1940 and I don’t remember all those rules. We use to use the liquor bottle tops and cut the neck off when we could find them . No body would let you use theirs and you didn’t loose them.The looser of the game first man out had to put the winners name on a shirt with bottle caps and the cork inside the cap. We moved to West Philly they called it the same, street checkers but some rules were different. I’ve been telling my wife about this game, now ican finally show it to her thanks to you. Ihave acouple of liquor tops and i would love to shoot agame.IfIloose I’ll put your name on a shirt for you.

I grew up in downtown Jersey…

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I grew up in downtown Jersey City in the late 50’s around Montgomery and Varick Streets, a block away from Van Vorst Park. This was my favorite game growing up! We called the game “street checkers.” We either used checkers from a checker set, or screw top bottle caps filled with tar that had softened up in the hot summer sun. We didn’t flick the top with a finger, but squeezed it out between the thumb and index finger like a marble. We had a 15 number board, with odd numbers from 1-9 up one side, even numbers from 2-10 down the other, 11 and 13 on top opposite 12-14 at bottom. 15 was a small box in a larger box with four lines connecting the corners of the small box with the corners of the large box. The spaces within were poison but the lines were safe. If you landed in a poison area, you lost a turn. While playing, if you hit an opponent’s cap, you advanced a number. You had to go from 1 to 15, then back down to 1. After that you shot into one of the poison spaces, became “poison,” and could kill off any remaining players. I still have one of my tar filled caps on a little knick knack shelf in my apartment.

Is there anything being…

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Is there anything being done to popularize Skelly again? I loved this game growing up in Bed-stuy on Gates & Lewis aves! With skelly one made new freinds, stayed out of trouble & engaged in some good ol’ clean fun ! Unlike these violent video games today, which keep kids in the house, encouraging anti-social behavior. I remember a kid whos’ top got kicked into the street. When his turn came back around he carefully aimed at the opposition and flung his top from a distance of at least twenty five feet away.The whole thing seemed like it happened in slow motion ! The top landed back on the board, hitting his rivals’ top then deflected into his desired number ! I’ve seen some good shots before but that was one of the coolest ! ” let’s keep skelly alive by any means necassary !

As my daughter said above,…

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As my daughter said above, it was a wonderful Easter Sunday. I remember playing skully when I lived in the Casle Hill Projects in the Bronx. I had some much fun playing and teaching my children and grandchildren the game. And what I remembered the most was the making of the caps. I told my grandaughter, Taylor, she had to personalize the cap. The cap was the game. We would spend hours going through the trash just to find a few. And every on had their “favorite cap”. We would spend hours on the ground playing. And we were good at it. Showing my kids brought back great mamories. For just a little while, I felt like a kid agane.

WOW! Today is Easter…

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WOW! Today is Easter and my parents as well as my brother and his wife joined us for dinner. It was a beautiful day outside and we took all opportunities to enjoy it. My daughter, 8, and sister in law decided to play on the driveway with chalk. My dad who was near by decided to reminisce and show my children and us adults (his children)how to play a game he played when he was a child growing up in the Bronx. Not remembering the name of the game, just the basics of it he taught us this really cool game that had us all playing, from my son age 5 to my dad 46. While playing we discussed how it would be neat to recall the exact rules and dimensions of this game as well as learn/remember others. I suggested the internet by searching under street games. We joked and said we could search under “ghetto games” as this is what my dad refered to them as. Low and behold here I am. When everyone left I came online to research the fun game we learned and played today as a family. I am way to excited to call my dad and send him this website. He will be thrilled. He taught us how to make the bottlecaps with crayons as weight and that is how I was able to pinpoint this game we played. Now I know the name and can find out more about it and learn others. Thank you for taking the time to make this site possible. Hopefully others can go back in time like we did and have just as much fun! Tasha O. Albany NY