yes,yes,yes….it is a sliding pond. Not just in East Flatbush but in south central Queens. Now I live up in Mass. and they think I’m nuts when I use the term. Check out the book “New Yawk Tawk”. The author says that sliding pond is only used in NYC and may come from the Dutch Bahnn which means TRACK….sliding track.
I am originally from the Morris Park section of Da Bronx. We played in a playground called Loretto Park. The park was between Morris Park Ave and Van Ness, and Haight & Tomlinson Avenues, The “parkie” (attendant) was a woman we called Polly. If you were from the Bronx it was a sliding pond, a see-saw, and a spaldeen. Nothing else would do. The City of New York even painted a skully court in the park for the young kids to play on…us older kids played it in the street. I can remember being the first kid in the park after lunch. The sliding pond was about 200 degrees in the sun, and all you wore were shorts, you’s sit on that hot stainless steel board and burn you freakin butt….but it was fun, and no one cared less. There were no rubber mats at the end, or sand pits, you just landed on blacktop and took the abuse like a man. It was fun in those days.
In Queens their was only 1 playground and that was at P.S. 26. Sure their was others, 73,188, Jewel Ave but only 26 could you play softball, basketball, stickball any kind of ball at night because we had the lights. Even if the parky locked up we had the key to the parky room and turned the lights on ourselves, it was play all nite, or maybe some card games in the empty sand box. Those were the days.
I’m looking for information on what we used to call Mush Ball. As I remember it was a ball just a little bigger than a soft ball but it had external ribs instead of smooth sewn seams. It was played like softball but on shorter bases. Is there anything like it played today? Was it played nationally or just in the Pittsburgh area where I remember it? Any information you have would be appreciated!
PS186 in Brooklyn: Sponge Ball: Basically a pitcher and batter. Box painted on the wall represents strike zone. Baseball wiht no running, the father you hit the ball the bigger hit you got Other huge games Ace King queen wiffle ball triangle ringolevio off the wall i declare war In winter, skitchin as well as bombing passing cars withe ice balls from the corner
A very rough and popular English game for boys in High School is Bulldog. You’d have two teams starting with the same number, one attacking and one on defense. The attackers would try to reach the wall behind the defending team, but any attacker that got caught (tackled to the ground) would have to join the defenders team. As the game progressed, there would be less and less attackers. There was no winning, it was just a game of pure attrition, with lots of bruises. You’d get a good reputation in school if you were good at Bulldog. It was a great game for growing boys.