I grew up in the Bronx. I remeber that when you heard the “ting-a-ling” from the ice cream truck every kid in the projects would be shouting..” MOM…..BOB!!!!”. All the kids would be running to mom or waiting under the windows for some wraped change in TP. Doesn’t matter what the man who drove the trucks name was…to us kids it was BOB! Wonder if bob is still on time?
We played stickball in the schoolyard of P.s. 209, Brooklyn. We never played with more than three people on a team. Our rules were simple, chalk box on the wall for the strikezone, no arguments there just look at the chalk on the ball. Hit the top of the fence on a fly and you had a double. Hit the bottom of the fence on the fly and you got a triple. Anywhere over the fence and you touched them all. No toe left on my Pro-Keds after a month. It’s too bad I can’t find anyone to play stickball with in Southern California. I’ll always be a Brooklyn boy at heart. Talking about this makes me want to get up and walk down to Nathan’s and get a bag of those greasy fries, nothing like it in the world.
I remember that there were 2 tests you gave a ball to check it. First you bounced to see if it was dead or live. Second, you sqeezed it to see if it was cracked, soft or hard. Once, I was in the candy store and a little kid was buying an egg ball and wanted to check it out. He innocently asked the store owner: “George, can I squeeze your balls”. We cracked up and the kid did not understand why. Remember stoop ball and 5 boxes.
Man, was I surprised and excited to find this site!! First off to Hugh McNally…You’ve done an outstanding job of putting the rules together in an articulate manner. Very professional. (It reads like it was written by a technical writer.) Anyway, I played Skully (or Skelly?) growing up in the Bronx and Queens. The game was slightly different between the neighborhoods I grew up in. In lived in the Bronx until second or third grade. I remember playing first with the broken necks off Coca-Cola or Heinekein bottles which we removed by running the neck-end of the bottles over a manhole cover. Eventually we began using the glides off of the bottoms of chairs and desks. (The desks had large glides, while the chairs had smaller ones.) I remember melting down Crayola crayons into the gliders. (It was pretty cool trying to customize the colors in your cap for that unique look.) I remember just using the plucking technique. There were two: 1)Flicking the middle finger from contact with the thumb (for power shooting, i.e.- Blasting or for long-distance shots) and 2)Flicking the index finger from underneath the thumb, while using the other three fingers as a brace (much like when shooting pool). This technique worked best for finesse shots (i.e.- hitting your opponent soft enough to keep him around for bait on your next shot, or when shooting around the Skully so that you didn’t get stuck inside, or overshoot your intened box.) After moving to Queens (Springfield Gardens area), I remember using the caps off the Dellwood milk containers. We started weighting them down with candle wax. Wax was surpassed by Playdoh or clay later. But eventually the preferred top came to be the bottoms from Push-Up ice cream. We’d weight them down with multi-colors of clay and scrape them against the ground to help smooth them down underneath. They were awesome!!! We would even put a chrome tire valve cap (taken from a car or bicycle) in the center of the cap and use it as an aiming site! The other technique that I was introduced to in Queens was called, “Flying your cap”. This was usually used for covering very long distances (i.e.- shooting back into town to become (or after becoming?) a Killer.) It could also be used to shoot at any time. (It was preferred when shooting from corner to corner across the board.) This is how we did it: 1)Place the cap in between your thumb and the first digit of your middle finger 2)While keeping your forearm parallel to the ground and against your waist, pull your arm back 3)Push your arm forward briskly, while flicking the first digit of your middle finger forward (much like when some flicks away a cigarette butt) The top should now be propelled forward as it rotates (from the flicking of the finger) and should cover a long, or short distance (dependent on the force of the forwrd arm thrust and the flick of the finger). Using this technique you can hit your opponent from long distances. (Think of the little pistol with the rifle stock that Lee Van Cleef used in “For a Few Dollars More”). I also remember the start line being far enough from the “1” box that you’d be better suited trying to “fly your cap” than to pluck it. The shooting sequence of players was determined by the closest one to the “1” box. I also remember the fun of blasting your opponent so hard that he’d start rolling on his side all the way out of town (he wasn’t allowed to stop it on his own.) I live in California (Bay Area) and am 33 now, but still love to play. I’ve shown this game to my nieces and nephews and they all love it!! I’ve also shown it to a few of my buddies and they love it too! It’s like being a kid all over again. I just moved to a smaller town outside of San Jose, and intend on teaching the kids in the neighborhood and in my new congregation how to play this truly timeless game!!! Anyone out there, please feel free to e-mail me at: thunt [at] obsidianinc [dot] com or NYsquared [at] aol [dot] com P.S.- I also have fond memories of playing Stickball (played in the street or between two walls of a school builing), Ring-O-Leavio, Punchball (with the sponge ball or Pinky), Roundup, Freeze Tag, Dodge Ball, and the favaorite with the girls…Run, Catch, and Kiss.
Wow, people who remember Skully! Just for the record, I remember playing the game in the early 60s, probably about 1965 in Brooklyn. We lived in a dead-end kind of street (St. John’s Place) near the Botanical Gardens, so cars weren’t too much of a problem. As I remember it, only bottle caps were allowed. We called it Skully. The start point was well away from the first box. For some reason I think we referred to using the finger-flick (middle or index finger against thumb) that propelled the cap as “binking.” All the caps I remember were made with crayons on the radiators, although I do remember Mom helping us by creating a double-boiler set-up on the stove to melt wax–she did it, of course, to avoid the waxy mess we’d make on the floors. The other (even messier) method was to fill the cap with crayon chips and then balance it on a hot desk lamp. We always drew the board with chalk. The board was about 5X7 feet. At the end you became a “killer.” We also had the three hits to get someone out and the rule about getting stuck in the center box, but I’m a bit hazy about the rules. This sure brings back memories, though. Does anyone remember “pensapinkies?” did everybody call those squashy pink stickball balls by that name? I think they actually were “Pennsylvania Pinkies.” Speaking of getting Mom angry, to make stickball bats we always cut off somebody’s broom and taped the cut end with black electrician’s tape. Somebody mentioned “Coco-Leavy-o.” Somehow I remember it as just “Cocoleo” but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Help! Now I live in Tokyo, where nobody has any idea what I’m talking about when it comes to street games. Thanks for the memories
how about winters, we couldn’t afford the sleds with runners so we found some large pieces of cardboard, or cloth potato sacks and slid down the “slopes” in Crotona(sic) Park in da bronx – the highest hill was near the swimming pool right across from PS (i can’t remember PS what) where i took a “special” class (called cardiac class – cause i had rheumatic fever and a heart murmur), we used to have to take a nap while the other kids were out playing… & in the summer we used to use cardboard or sacks and slide down the same grass covered hills… that was back in the late 30’s – a few years ago i took my son to show him the tenements, schools and park where i grew up as a youngster (before movin to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles) ((now know as East LA))… the school and apartments were all boarded up—i almost cried!!
Have neither played nor spoken about cracktop in over thirty years, but if memory serves… Play commences with each player throwing (spinning) his top at the same time. First guy whose top stops spinning is ‘it’. His top sits on its side as the target. In turns, the other players throw their tops (with a fearsome and perhaps sadistic intent) in an attempt to score a direct hit.* If you had a direct hit, your turn was over and you were saved the indignity of replacing the guy who was ‘it.’ If you missed, you advanced to a secondary stage of silliness which incorporated endless opportunities for arguments, disputes, and general verbal fencing: you had to bring your top into contact with the target top before your top stopped spinning — preferred and most reliable method was to hold your string taut, straddle the spinning top, and drag it into contact with the target by pulling the string along the spinning point. (Many of the low guys in the pecking order would be exposed for a kick in the pants while performing this ungraceful maneuver). A far more accomplished and enviable technique (but naturally more difficult and risky) was to scoop your spinning top onto your palm, carrying it (it must continue to spin all the while) to a point above the target, and dropping it onto the target. The clumsy guys would become ridiculous when attempting this one, and could easily be goaded into trying something which would assure them a turn as target. The game was everything a good street game should be: skill was evident, the uninitiated were pitiful, and there was a thinly veiled aroma of violence about the whole affair (anyone remember absurd “knucks” sessions with playing cards?) *footnote from above: hilariously unlikely folklore of some kid on another block or another neighborhood or another planet shattering a top into flying splinters. We would spend more time relating and believing such crap than actually playing the game!
Yes Turkish Taffy. You remember BONOMOS.The song went on TV BO NO MO BONOMOS OOO its BONOMOS CANDY. Went along with N E S T L E S Nestles makes the very best….. CHOOOOOOC LAAAATE.Also Choo Choo Charley was an engineer Choo Choo Charley did his best we hear He had an engine and he sure had fun He used Good and Plenty candy to make his train run Everyone Charlie says ” Love my good and plenty” Charlie says ” really rings the bell” Charlie says ” Love my Good and Plenty” He used Good and Plenty candy to make his train run. or Whad do you want when you gotta have something and its gotta be good and its gotta be alot and you only have a dime.Whadda you want Alan Karlin