Category Archives: Skully

Oh, my god!!!!!!! I cannot…

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Oh, my god!!!!!!! I cannot believe I have found this site. Skelly was my all time favorite street game growing up in the Bronx, though I first learned the game during the short time my family and I lived in the Edgemere projects in Far Rockaway in the mid-60’s. They called it skully there, skelly in Co-op City, but no matter the name, it was so much fun! I moved to Rochester, NY 8 years ago, and no one has ever heard of it, their loss. I am going out as soon as I can, get some sidewalk chalk, and draw a skelly board on my driveway come this spring…….Maybe I can teach these hicks up here what a good game looks like……… Thanks to the webmasters, and the creators of this website, you have brought back a flood of great memories for me, and I am going to pass this along……

We played a variant of Deadbox…

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We played a variant of Deadbox in Feltonville (4500 Hurley near D & Whitaker) where the numbered boxes went from 1 to 16. The 14,14,15,16 boxes were long and narrow, and arranged along the four sides of the deadbox. I’ve got the board memorized and can supply a diagram. Jim – dtvjho-dead [at] emailias [dot] com

I grew up in Long Island…

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I grew up in Long Island City, Queens in the Ravenswood Projects 1960’s. We played “skezie” religiously every day in the summer and after school. I have vivid memories of playing the game with my friends. I had patches on patches on my dungarees. We used beer or soda caps mostly and we didn’t have twist off’s back then. I remember melting crayola crayons into the bottle cap as we tried to come up with what we thought were cool designs. A few of the kids would use heinz ketchup bottle caps or baby food jar lids – we called those kids fagots. The kids across the street called the game skully. I have taught my 11 year old twins to play the game – but they just don’t appreciate it.

VannyPoo is right – I grew…

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VannyPoo is right – I grew up in Park Slope Brooklyn in the 60’s and we called it skelsies. I now live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and was trying to explain the game to some of my co-workers. I had to send them this link – they thought I was making it up. Wait til I explain Hot Peas and Butter and Buck Buck…

I grew up in the South Beach…

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I grew up in the South Beach projects on Staten Island in the 70’s. We played skully every single summer day. Got soda bottle caps with the crowns, melted our crayolas with matches or on the radiators in our buildings (pronounced rad E a tors, not raid). We always put pennies in the bottom for weight and because we grew up in the projects the skully board was actually official and painted (just like the hopscotch board). Growing up in NYC during this time was just phenomenal, we played what we called “caw, caw A ringalerio” every summer night. I have not heard anyone else call this “caw, caw” which is what we called it for short, anyone else ever hear it referred to like that? Live in California now and feel bad for kids growing up now without all these fantastic city games – anyone remember “errors” or “assball”. We were quite inventive! Thanks for the memories, Mary Finn

Grew up at West Fordham Road…

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Grew up at West Fordham Road (Tolentine parrish) in the late fiftes and early sixties. Played outside all day. Skelly was a favorite, also box ball (each player took a box on the sidewalk, a total of four in a square), stoop ball and stick ball. Kept busy all day. No electronics, but plenty of fun. Fond memories!

As a child I lived in the…

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As a child I lived in the Canarsie area in Brooklyn. We played skully in the street with bottle caps that were filled with melted crayons or candle wax. Some of the fillers in the bottle caps were so cool, we wouldn’t even play with them. Started a collection. I used to put a penny in the bottom of the cap and then cover it with crayon and melt the crayon. It gave more weight to the cap, so it traveled a straight path. It was also helpful when we played games when “Blasties” were allowed, because when they hit the unweighted caps it would cause the lighter cap to go flying off the board. You could become a “killer” even before the other kid got back to the board. Sadly, I now live in Phoenix where it will be 116 degrees today and the ground is so hot it would melt the crayons in the caps…