i grew up in the Bronx, walton ave. We played stoop ball in the school yard on one of the steps leading to the school which faced the schoolyard fence. single if it was not caught; double if it hit the bottom half of the fence; triple the top half and home run over the fence. if you caught the ball on a grounder, fly or off the fence without bouncing it was an out. so was missing the stoop.
I TO AM Looking for Manufacturer/Supplier of Pimple-Balls? I HAD ONE IN MY HAND TODAY A FELLOW WORKER WHERE I WORK IN PHILLY WHO IS ABOUT 50 YRS OLD BRING IT TO WORK TO SHOW ME I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR ONE FOR TWO YEARS NOW AND TOLD HIM ABOUT IT HE THOUGHT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE HIS HE SAID ITS 40 YRS OLD AND IS IN GOOD SHAPE BUT HE WONT PART WITH IT I MUST HAVE ONE
Pete, Ron Heller mentions Chinese handball in a post of his in the ‘Running Around’ section. We used to play it in Queens, too, of course. Like regular handball, except the ball had to bounce once instead of everything being on the fly. As kids, we probably played more Chinese than regular handball, which was more for the older guys. We’d start to get more into regular handball as we reached HS age.
In the mid to late 1940’s a Spaldeen cost $.19 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I don’t remember Pensie Pinkies – did they come along in the 50’s? Three sewers was a home run. In the 30’s the “big guys” used to play great stick ball games but that stopped when they went to WWII and rubber balls were not avaialable. While most of the guys came back, they went on to other pursuits after the war. Our games were fun, but they never seemed, in my mind, to match-up with those the “big guys” played.
Pete,Sunnyside,Queens 1951-58 Two people stood on the edge of a sidewalk box facing each other,each having one box in front of them.On the line between the two boxes a “GOOD HUMOR,Popcicle” stick was placed at right angle to and on the line between the two boxes.The mission was to hit the stick and move it towards and at long last over the line at the edge of your opponent’s box.I don’t recall any points just win or lose. I came to this site via N.Y.TIMES story looking for CHINESE HANDBALL. I see ACE-KING-QUEEN which was the positions of the boxes but did not find anything. Any help anyone???
In Queens in the 60’s, we played the five box version of boxball described above. Two players stood with five boxes between them; you would first bounce it once in the box closest to your opponent (your fifth box), and then once in each of your fourth and fifth boxes, and so on. I’m not quite sure if I remember the ping-pong style of two box that Connie describes above. We didn’t play hit the stick, but I do remember playing hit the penny. I think you scored one point if you hit the penny, and two if you flipped it. Players stood with two boxes between them, and put the penny or other coin on the crack between the two boxes. We didn’t like to use nickels because they were heavy and more difficult to flip. :^) This was a mostly a game for younger kids, whereas I remember still playing boxball into early adolescence, when we weren’t playing wiffle ball or stick ball or just hanging out. Another favorite game of childhood was ring-o-levio, which I played from early childhood right through high school. Those later HS games were neighborhood-wide.
I’m 25 years old from Washington Heights. But, while my friends and I were growing up we played Chinese handball (we have actually passed it down to the younger kids that are currently growing up). We had various forms of the game where the “Ace” could decide what the rules of the game were going to be. Usually when the best players were around we played “killer serve” (where you could serve as you pleased as long as you didn’t pass the first block of cement and the last block of cement), with stealing (you couldn’t step into another player’s box) and hitting the ball three times (if you wanted to).