What kind of ball was used for stickball in the 1930’s, and earlier? I saw a picture of kids playing stickball around 1910, and wondered what they were using. I’m working on a story that takes place in the ’30’s, and I’d love to know where I could find this material. If Anyone has any information, I certainly would appreciate it. Pat W.
Memories from mid-80’s New Hampshire. We had a great playground game that went under two names: Muckle was the polite, “enlightened” name, and the other was much less polite, and will not be repeated here. The game was what all playground games should be: agressive, painful, and somewhat sadistic. The game was played with a football, or in a pinch, any other object (we played with a comb once). One person had the ball, and had to run away from the other kids ( an avereage game had 40 or so players). The other kids tried to tackle the kid with the ball. When tackled, he tossed the ball straight up in the air. What ever kid caught the ball next became “it” and had to run away with the ball. Here’s the catch: Occasionally, we would have some wimps who would refuse to ever catch the ball. Thus, a “catch” was counted as the first player to touch the ball after it was thrown. No fair dropping it to avoid being tackled. If you dropped the ball, an automatic “pig pile” was called, and all forty kids got to jump on you at once (if you held on, perchance only one or two kids would make the tackle). Needless to say, parents and teachers hated this game, but kids loved it. There was nothing cooler than taking down some kid twice your size.
In the ’60’s in Far Rockaway, Spaldeens were to Pensie Pinkies as the Yankees were to the Mets. Spaldeens were the official, respected standard. Pensie Pinkie were the unorthodox, seamless, higher bouncing challenger. Personally, I preferred the livlier Pensie Pinkie. Especially for punchball. Also much easier to control in “squeeze” and “spin” games like box baseball. As I recall, the Spaldeen had a rougher, powdery-when-new feel to it. It was firmer and tended to get brittle more easily than the Pensie Pinkie. The Pensie Pinkie was smoother, super-lively when new, more easily squeezed. When the Pensie Pinkie got old, it lost much of its bounce and was very easily squeezed. Still, nothing like a new Pensie Pinkie. It would just fly off of your fist. Pensie Pinkie’s are a lot like the consistency of a new racquet ball, but pink instead of blue.
What about “wireball” where you would stand on the sidewalk under the electric wire that ran down the street and throw the ball vertically up at the wire. If it hit the wire it was a home run-but only if the other team did not catch it before it hit the ground. If they caught it you were out. If it didn’t hit the wire then you got a single, double, or triple depending on how far into the street the ball went,but only if they didn’t catch it.
I grew up in West Philly in the 70’s. what we called “Box Ball” was played on a “baseball diamond” (anything would do…never on a real field) played with a tennis ball, pink rubber ball (solid) , or a white rubber ball (hollow). The game was played like baseball except instead of a pitcher the batter would drop the ball and hit the ball with their fist.. aiming at someone they felt couldn’t field or just over someones head… and you would run the bases and score like in baseball.. 3 outs per inning… never heard of what everyone else calls “box ball” anyone else out there that remembers playing such a game and what you may of called it????