Category Archives: Skully
Man, was I surprised and…
Man, was I surprised and excited to find this site!! First off to Hugh McNally…You’ve done an outstanding job of putting the rules together in an articulate manner. Very professional. (It reads like it was written by a technical writer.) Anyway, I played Skully (or Skelly?) growing up in the Bronx and Queens. The game was slightly different between the neighborhoods I grew up in. In lived in the Bronx until second or third grade. I remember playing first with the broken necks off Coca-Cola or Heinekein bottles which we removed by running the neck-end of the bottles over a manhole cover. Eventually we began using the glides off of the bottoms of chairs and desks. (The desks had large glides, while the chairs had smaller ones.) I remember melting down Crayola crayons into the gliders. (It was pretty cool trying to customize the colors in your cap for that unique look.) I remember just using the plucking technique. There were two: 1)Flicking the middle finger from contact with the thumb (for power shooting, i.e.- Blasting or for long-distance shots) and 2)Flicking the index finger from underneath the thumb, while using the other three fingers as a brace (much like when shooting pool). This technique worked best for finesse shots (i.e.- hitting your opponent soft enough to keep him around for bait on your next shot, or when shooting around the Skully so that you didn’t get stuck inside, or overshoot your intened box.) After moving to Queens (Springfield Gardens area), I remember using the caps off the Dellwood milk containers. We started weighting them down with candle wax. Wax was surpassed by Playdoh or clay later. But eventually the preferred top came to be the bottoms from Push-Up ice cream. We’d weight them down with multi-colors of clay and scrape them against the ground to help smooth them down underneath. They were awesome!!! We would even put a chrome tire valve cap (taken from a car or bicycle) in the center of the cap and use it as an aiming site! The other technique that I was introduced to in Queens was called, “Flying your cap”. This was usually used for covering very long distances (i.e.- shooting back into town to become (or after becoming?) a Killer.) It could also be used to shoot at any time. (It was preferred when shooting from corner to corner across the board.) This is how we did it: 1)Place the cap in between your thumb and the first digit of your middle finger 2)While keeping your forearm parallel to the ground and against your waist, pull your arm back 3)Push your arm forward briskly, while flicking the first digit of your middle finger forward (much like when some flicks away a cigarette butt) The top should now be propelled forward as it rotates (from the flicking of the finger) and should cover a long, or short distance (dependent on the force of the forwrd arm thrust and the flick of the finger). Using this technique you can hit your opponent from long distances. (Think of the little pistol with the rifle stock that Lee Van Cleef used in “For a Few Dollars More”). I also remember the start line being far enough from the “1” box that you’d be better suited trying to “fly your cap” than to pluck it. The shooting sequence of players was determined by the closest one to the “1” box. I also remember the fun of blasting your opponent so hard that he’d start rolling on his side all the way out of town (he wasn’t allowed to stop it on his own.) I live in California (Bay Area) and am 33 now, but still love to play. I’ve shown this game to my nieces and nephews and they all love it!! I’ve also shown it to a few of my buddies and they love it too! It’s like being a kid all over again. I just moved to a smaller town outside of San Jose, and intend on teaching the kids in the neighborhood and in my new congregation how to play this truly timeless game!!! Anyone out there, please feel free to e-mail me at: thunt [at] obsidianinc [dot] com or NYsquared [at] aol [dot] com P.S.- I also have fond memories of playing Stickball (played in the street or between two walls of a school builing), Ring-O-Leavio, Punchball (with the sponge ball or Pinky), Roundup, Freeze Tag, Dodge Ball, and the favaorite with the girls…Run, Catch, and Kiss.
Wow, people who remember…
Wow, people who remember Skully! Just for the record, I remember playing the game in the early 60s, probably about 1965 in Brooklyn. We lived in a dead-end kind of street (St. John’s Place) near the Botanical Gardens, so cars weren’t too much of a problem. As I remember it, only bottle caps were allowed. We called it Skully. The start point was well away from the first box. For some reason I think we referred to using the finger-flick (middle or index finger against thumb) that propelled the cap as “binking.” All the caps I remember were made with crayons on the radiators, although I do remember Mom helping us by creating a double-boiler set-up on the stove to melt wax–she did it, of course, to avoid the waxy mess we’d make on the floors. The other (even messier) method was to fill the cap with crayon chips and then balance it on a hot desk lamp. We always drew the board with chalk. The board was about 5X7 feet. At the end you became a “killer.” We also had the three hits to get someone out and the rule about getting stuck in the center box, but I’m a bit hazy about the rules. This sure brings back memories, though. Does anyone remember “pensapinkies?” did everybody call those squashy pink stickball balls by that name? I think they actually were “Pennsylvania Pinkies.” Speaking of getting Mom angry, to make stickball bats we always cut off somebody’s broom and taped the cut end with black electrician’s tape. Somebody mentioned “Coco-Leavy-o.” Somehow I remember it as just “Cocoleo” but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Help! Now I live in Tokyo, where nobody has any idea what I’m talking about when it comes to street games. Thanks for the memories
Thanks for the Skelly rules….
Thanks for the Skelly rules. I realize that I joined this discussion late, however in the realm of interesting skelly caps, my father used to melt lead into soda caps for me to use in skelly. As I remember, during the game you could switch caps, and this one had a little more “staying power”.
> I bought a great t-shirt…
Growing up in the Bronx…
Growing up in the Bronx (Evergreen and Story Aves) I used to play skulley until my Mom would make me come in for the night, this was usually after the sun went down! My favorite caps used to come from the bottoms of the school chairs at PS 93, heavy metal and smooth. Brings back memories of “No Kicksies” and “I called Helicopters”. I’ve taught my kids how to play and hopefully the game will never die.
I’m glad to see someone…
> Does anyone remember the…
> Does anyone remember the four finger drag in Skellzie I don’t remember it being called the “four finger drag,” but I now recall “dragsies” and “pushies”, both bogus cap-flicking techniques abhorred by true Skully players. I will add these variations to my next revision of the “Official Skully Rules”… http://www.westnet.com/~hmcnally/skully/skullyrules.pdf You’ll need the Adobe Acrobat reader to view this, which you can get FOR FREE at http://www.adobe.com/. BTW, the story recounted a couple of days ago by popbet is dead-on accurate… the same Skully cap development happened to me in the Bronx (Fordham Road/Jerome Avenue/St. Nicholas of Tolentine/Alexanders area). I still have my dominator, and, as proven at the recent Back to Brooklyn festival, it still dominates. -HMM
I almost forgot. Does anyone…
I almost forgot. Does anyone remember the four finger drag in Skellzie. Also guys would HEAD FOR THE HILLS when another would become killer. I remember chasing a guy all over Carmine Street park just to blast him after I would become a killer. Great memories, give me a Manhattan Special….Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
While I certainly could…
While I certainly could not equal some of the stories elucidated earlier, I cannot help but sigh at the emotion and connectedness that the mere rememberance of skelly brings out in all of us. But then, after all, why would we all be searching sites like these if not for these visceral memories. Oh, for the days when bottle caps came with cork within; waiting only for the crayon or candle wax to cement their perfections. And … why is it that there were such geographical differences in the game, proceding downward even from the nomenclature?