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.
I grew up in Greenpoint Brooklyn on Manhattan Ave. I was making my communion in May of ’61. Before we went to church my buddies Kevin and Rob were on India Street playing stickball. There was still an hour before we had to leave, so I snuck out of the apartment while my mother wasn’t looking. I didn’t have time to change out of my suit. We were winning by 1 run until I tripped on my way to second, and shredded the knees right off my communion pants. I had ten minutes before I had to be at St. Cyril’s to make my communion so I rushed home, picturing my mothers angry expression when she’d see my torn suit. My mother was furios, but we got to church only a couple minutes late.
We used to play stick ball in a narrow alley at PS 208 in Brooklyn. We had a strike zone painted on the wall. On the roof was a HR, off the school 3rd flooe windows was a double. Triples were anything that hit the roof moldings. We used Spaldeens mostly, Pemsie Pinkies were too expensive, but they did seem to bounce further.