sure im a tom boy i still am i love to play with the guys the seem to have so much fun. i play soccer and football and sometimes even baseball . face it it was fun wile it lasted but now i want the boys to like me i cant just be one of the guys all mi life or ill never get a guy. help!!
A wooden crate, from the pushcart man, on Blake Ave. (Brooklyn)… two sticks to hold onto… the metal skates on a large, wide board on the bottom and bottle caps that you nailed on…Voila! a scooter.And remember the wooden rubber band guns? You’d make them and use linoleum to shoot at the one or two cars that went down your street.I was a tomboy, and loved hammering, and sanding and nailing…
Definitely a sliding pond..and there was a huge fountain in the center of all the concrete and it had a circular seating area (of concrete) and that was our ‘pool’.. Nok-Hockey (Toys R Us has the wooden one, with the wooden puck).. a ‘sandy beach area’ to play with your shovel and pail and a circular track so you could skate..with the metal skates that had the key, and fastened onto your shoes, and you could make them bigger as your feet grew, and tighten them.. Snedicker Ave. park in East New York (Bklyn) and Bradford St. park in East New York… I’d ride my little trike
Hi Marc…this is super!!!!!!! I remember Chink ball..played at every corner store in Feltonville where there was a ” Jewish ” candy or variety store, and the drug stores wall with light buff colored brick were not exempt either. We used to be ” chased ” by Muchnick, Mr. Gold, Lenny’s food market and even the Smylie Rd shoe repair man. It was a great way to spend an evening! Now here were the rules…you had to show up in a white tee shirt, and not the athletic ones either or you couldn’t play. You pitched a penny against the wall to find out who would serve first and keep score!! That was important. One bounce of the pimple ball which was sold for 9 cents by the store owner ( the corner) where you got chased was shared by all players. One bounce was the rule and if the ball jumped the wall and went onto a lawn, you lost 2 points! The game was played with and open palm to smack the ball, almost like tennis or racket ball Well we invented ” Jewish Chink ” —My family was the Ponnock Toy company and we were privy to have the old paddle and ball…A wooden paddle and a long rubber band attached to the ball manufactured inside and connected to paddle with a staple. I cut the rubber band and brought two paddles with me to Muchnicks’ in the early 1960’s and we had fun! We called ourselves the Pennway Paddle Club. When the pimple ball went flat from us really abusing it, we held off from immediately cutting it into ” halfies ” and ran around playing ” paddle Tag” So much fun!!! thanks marc.. this is great
I moved to Da Bronx in May of 1960 to get away from crime. I originally lived in Mount Vernon. I lived on Pelham Parkway North and the Allerton Avenue area. I hung out with friends from school on Cruger, Holland, Wallace, and the Parkside area. There were the projects, apt. buildings, and all the way up to Eastchester Road and Allerton Avenue. My parents didnot worry about me getting hurt or anything happening to me in those days. I remember the Mr. Softee trucks selling ice cream cones for a dime, one candy store that had ice cream pops for a nickel, spalding balls for .19, and also John’s Bargain store on Lydig avenue. We sometimes bought generic spauldings for 7 cents there ! Those were the good old days ! I still live in the area and what changes I have seen over the years and it’s not for the better.
When I was between, say, 11 and 15, we used to play a lot of boy/girl games, like Spin the Bottle, but also Seven Minutes in Heaven, RCK, and Trust Me. I came of age in the 70s in Brooklyn and still live in Brooklyn. RCK was played in the dark, usually at home when your parents were out. You would feel around in the dark and touch a person and if he/she didn’t run, you’d kiss them. Seven Minutes in Heaven is exactly how it sounds, provided you were in heaven with the one you wanted to be with. I forget how you hooked up with the person you were to spend seven minutes with. Trust Me was the funniest one, because a guy would place his hand way down on your leg and work his way up and ask you if you trusted him and he proceeded. If you were shy or didn’t know the guy well, you’d stop him at your thigh, if you liked him he would work his way up to your breast and then you would have been officially “felt up.” (I hope I’m not being too graphic. I know this is PG.) In those days guys rarely made a pit stop you know where. Did anyone else play these games or was I just hanging out with the wrong crowd?
Remember making stilts out of big juice-cans and string? You’d hold the loop of string at about hip height and clomp around… very cool. And those great whirring pull-toys made out of nothing but a big button and a piece of string… get it going fast, pulling your hands in and out… anybody remember any other great homemade stuff?