Hi, I remember skully (or wasn’t it skelly?) as the 9 box scenario described above. On Union St., in Crown Heights where I grew up in the 50’s, we used the grooves of the cement pavement boxes as edges of the total skully box. Then we chalked in the smaller numbered boxes. We also used to ‘load’ our bottle caps with melted crayon wax and smooth down the underside of the cap so it would slide true.
We made our skully caps in the early 60s in Flatbush both from crayon wax and the actual corks that were inside certain soda bottles. We would carefully pry out the cork lining (sometimes topped with silver foil – a treat!) and add it to another bottle cap, creating the “double corker.” A wax-filled cap was illogically (or not if you are 12) called a “wax corker.” We even occasionally made a “lead corker,” as described by a previous discussant. Our skully board was nine boxes (9 in the middle, surrounded by the trapezoids which were numbered 1-4).
I played Skully in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, NY in the late 50’s and and early 60’s almost every summer day. I lived on 70th Street between 17th and 18th Aves. I recall A friend of mine Dennis, carving a court in the street with a large screwdriver and then painting in the grooves with white paint. That court lasted until they redid the street in the late 1970’s. Great times and games !!
I grew up in Flatbush during the sixties ans early 70’s, and hung out on East 17th Street, between Foster & Newkirk. Anyone out their remember the great stick ball games played? We also engraved a Skelly court into the tar one hot summer day. It stayed their for quite some time. During the day, Harry the ice cream man would come by, and we would take a break to grab one of our favorites. Those were the good old days. I now live in NJ, and no one hear has heard of the game Skelly.
Scott, there’s a discussion of “9 box” skully earlier in this discussion (scroll up, look for a message from thegrape dated early 10/1999). I’d love to see someone compare the rules they remember for this game to the game we describe on Streetplay–I’d especially appreciate getting a drawing (not a text rendition) of the board, too. If you (or anyone) thinks they can do that, please send me email at hmcnally [at] streetplay [dot] com and we’ll incorporate your work into Skully Central! Hugh McNally hmcnally [at] streetplay [dot] com