Hey Joel – is that you? I still remember standing in the playground outside of Building 18 in Rochdale, your pinky pointing at me and trembling, thinking you’ll finally win one of those thousands of bets we made. But, posting as “Anonymous” – I guess you’re still not sure, after all these years.
Other games with baseball cards: 1) Trying to flip a card the farthest and winning the round. How to cheat: glue two cards together. 2) Set a card leaning against a wall and try to knock it down from across the area (often done in the lobby of an apartment building). Winner keeps everyone’s attempts. 3) Flipping across the lobby–closest to the opposite wall wins all the cards that were flipped that round. 4) A game I could never appreciate: Two players–one flips a card to the ground at his feet, noting whether it was heads (the picture of the ball player) or tails (the statistics). The opponent would have to match the toss–heads or tails–to win your card, or fail to match it and lose his.
Anybody remember “underducks”? We would push our friends on the playground swings until they were going really high, then on your last push, run under the swing in an “underduck”. We loved being both an underducker and an underduckee. And I remember those “death-defying” feats, too, but on the monkey bars (the ones that you are supposed to traverse arm over arm from one side to the other – are those monkey bars?) we used to walk on top of them (we considered that to be quite a cool trick!), and also lie down on them face down, hold on with our hands and flip our legs over our bodies and flip to the ground. That was “neat”!!
Go-go boots. I had a shiny white pair and a shiny black pair. How I loved those things. I remember my first pair of bell bottoms — red hip huggers — which I wore with a navy blue button down shirt that had large red polka dots. The things we thought were fashionable!! Do you remember the peasant dresses and shirts that we wore around 1970. Shopping for my daughter in the mall this weekend, I found that same style. Guess history does repeat itself.
30 some years later and I still moan over never getting those go-go boots! I finally derived some satisfaction when I discovered a pair that, alas, were not MY size, but, the next best thing, my 6 year old daughter’s size. I surprised her with them and she was as thrilled with them as I would have been, had I not be so cruelly deprived (?!)
Forget about lemonade stands – we had a penny stand. We’d take a very large glass jar — like the gallon pickle jars from the deli — and cut a slit in the lid large enough to put a penny through. We’d fill the jar with water. On the bottom of the jar, we’d center a shot glass. Kids would come by and send a penny through the slot, trying to get the penny to end up in the shot glass. Which of course, almost no one ever could do. The lucky winner would get a nickel. Now that I think back on it, we were underage gamblers!! No wonder some many of my generation love Atlantic City.
That flat taffy wrapped in waxed paper that sold for a nickel. It was colored on the sides with a white stripe down the middle. How about watermelon slices. Thin flat coconut-flavored candy that looked & was shaped like a slice of watermelon. Sold for a penny. Remember flying saucers. Two wafers sealed together will small round hard non-pariels within. It looked just like a flying saucer. Wax lips & fingernails. Long tubes of wax filled with very sweet liquid in it — as well as those shaped like soda bottles. Candy dots on paper — liquorice in chocolate and grape. And chocolate cow soda — just like yoo hoo! Kids today don’t know what they’re missing.