Category Archives: Skully
I grew up in the South Bronx…
I grew up in the South Bronx in the 60’s and we used to call this game “skellzies”. We spent many hot summer days avoiding the cars while we laid on the ground trying to calculate each shot carefully. We used whatever we could get our hands on be it soda bottle caps and liquor bottle caps which seemed to be plentiful on some streets back then. We also used to trim the top rim of the soda bottles by gradually scraping it on the sidewalk curb. These glass pieces worked great because they seemed to glide such a long distance instead of the cumbersome caps we used to use. Yet, “skellzies” also had a killer instinct quality to the game. You see the only way to stop someone from beating you, if you could help it, was to blast their pieces into kingdom come. This was easily acomplished when someone in my class brought a bottle opener to school and proceeded to fiddle around with the metal bottom glide of a school desk. When he succeeded, we ran out of the classroom, out of the building and followed him around the block. He immediately sat on the curb and pulled out of his pocket a popsicle stick. Then he began to dig deep into the tar on the street. He filled his metal glide piece with the tar. Once completed, he challenged us to a game of “skellzies”. We all gathered together in anticipation of what this “new” challenger piece could do. As we began play, it became evident what this metal glide piece could do. It could slide long distances like the glass pieces yet it was durable. But most of all it was dominating. He sent all of the challenger’s pieces into kingdom come. They went flying across the street and under parked cars. As for the glass pieces, you guessed it! They were smashed into smithereens. I mean it was ugly!!! The replacement bottle caps did not fare well either. The “Dominator” was born!!! Of course, you all know the rest of the story. Shortly after the “Dominator victory”, all the desks at school had no metal glide bottoms. This caused such a scandal that the whole school had detention for a week. Ahhh, but it was worth it!! The sight of game pieces flying all about as we challenged our neighbors in “skeelzies” and coming away with the spoils of war, was and still is a glorious memory today. Thanks for bringing your website to us all.
I can’t believe I found…
I can’t believe I found this site. Last weekend my boyfriend and I taught his kids to play skelly. That is what we called it in Sheepshead Bay in the late 60’s) I made the court in the driveway, but couldn’t remember the rules, and didn’t quite know what to do to become a killer. But we had a heck of a time. Next time will be even better.
I grew up in Laurelton,…
I grew up in Laurelton, Queens-and loved to play Skelly when I lived in the Woodside projects-melting crayons into soda bottle caps was the way to go-my brother always cried when I took the broken crayons to melt into new caps-I remember the scratches I got from the “pleats” on the caps they were the only caps allowed. I recently taught my girl Scout troop of second graders to play-it caught on quickly in the school in Ohio where I live
In Philly we called it Deadbox….
I used to make my skelly…
I used to make my skelly caps while I was doing my homework. I had a gooseneck lamp on my desk. I’d break up the crayons, crumble them into the bottle cap, poise it all under the bulb of the lamp (close, but not too close), and in the time it took to figure out a math problem the cap was done – looking good!
I grew up on the lower east…
I grew up on the lower east side of Manhattan in the late 50’s early 60’s. I am sure we called the game SKELLZIE. Our day would start off with a visit to the A&P on Bleecker and Leroy st. There we would, err……… borrow a cap from a Prell shampoo bottle, (it was plastic and tappered from top to bottom). It held lots of wax and your favorite, lucky penny. We would then go to the public park on Carmine street and play the game. The guy that worked for the parks deptartment, Rocky, was good enough to paint a Skellzie board on the ground for us. As I can remember, Rocky was a great guy always willing to do things for the kids in the neighborhood. I can’t remember the size of the board, although I’m sure what seemed very large back then probably wasn’t so. I don’t think the board could have been much more than 5’X 9′. When we tired of playing the game we would play Buck-Buck, Box Ball, Stoop Ball, and maybe if it was hot enough go for a swim in the Hudson. Things have certainly changed in 40 years, oh well! Any way, looking forward to seeing the final version of the Skellzie board. Keep the faith. Mike
Hello all, Welcome…
Hello all, Welcome to the exploding world of skully! My first draft of the Official Skully Rules are now available in .PDF format only (too tired to do a decent HTML treatment right now): http://www.westnet.com/~hmcnally/skully/skullyrules.pdf To read this document, you’ll need the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader, available at: http://www.adobe.com/ (just look for the yellow “Get Acrobat Reader” button on Adobe’s home page). I’m sure there’s mistakes, and maybe stuff you disagree with, but it’s a start! Let me know how you like it!
Great site. Bringing back…
Great site. Bringing back alot of great memories. I’ve spoken to my brother to work on our rendition of the “skelzee” board as I called it. I do remember that we used mostly street tar to fill our caps. Then we would spend alot of time rubbing both sides of the cap against a rough sidewalk to perfect the “glide”. Can’t wait to see the layout. So I can teach my son. Since I live upstate, looks like I’ll be teaching the whole town. Hey, by the way, I just got some cool spaldines and turned my 8yr old son onto off the point, he loved it. I’m working on the bat next!
I’ve read through some responses,…
I’ve read through some responses, they’re great…brings back alot of memories. In South Brooklyn, we must have been poorer or somethin’ ’cause we used the street tar for cap fillers and rubbed the cap down (both sides) on the sidewalk, preferably a rough one, to get them smooth as silk so they could glide across the court. Anyone else remember that?