⇒ Skip this, take me to the discussion archive!
In 1999, we started Streetplay… and the discussion area quickly became its most popular feature. While we’re carrying on our tradition of discussion 21st-century style on our Facebook Streetplay Discussion Group, we really didn’t want to lose all the years of reader-submitted stories and questions when we closed the discussions on Streetplay.com. That’s why we’ve gathered together every non-spam message we could (our site was getting hacked left-and-right!), and gathered it all here in a new, WordPress-powered archive.
Nearly every message that was on our original discussion board can be found here. Each message is created as a blog post, and when possible, the original author is credited. Also, with the power of the WordPress platform, we’ve been able to group the messages by their original categories (see the menus at the top of the page), and also add new tags to the nearly 4000 posts we’ve retrieved… take a look at the list of tags on the right-hand side, or just look for them at the bottom of any post. Of course, you can also search for any specific words you want using the search function at the top of any page.
To get you started, we’ve inserted the first bit of the message list below, beginning with the most recent. If any message strikes your fancy, try clicking its title, or use the categories and tags to dive deep into a topic you like.
Have fun with this! We hope you enjoy exploring this unearthed corner of Streetplay as much as we do!
What about “Ace, King, Queen”,…
How about “Corner Ball”….
How about “Corner Ball”. A four corner intersection was the “field” creating a “diamond”. Needless to say, a Spaldeen was the ball of policy and proceedure. No catcher position was required. The “Batter” took the ball in hand and hit it off the curb. If he missed the curb or hit it foul, he was out. All other rules of stickball applied, (although I can honestly say i have never heard of a guy “roofing it” in curb ball). In the summer on Briggs Avenue, we’d play at least 10-12 games a day while a bunch of other guys would be playing stickball. Now that I think about it, I guess corner ball allowed us to make room for another game to be played simultaneously while you waited to get on the stickball “field”. Of course, at least 4 guys would be off on the side with a game of “Off the Point” going, but that’s a whole other game.
Gottem,gottem,needem,gottem,gottem,gottem,needem,gottem…
I grew up on the Lower East…
I grew up on the Lower East side of Manhattan — or at least that was what WE called it. Now the section I grew up in is called “the East Village”. Sigh. Anyway, I remember three different ice cream trucks (Mr. Frostee; some other company I can’t remember; and then eventually, Good Humor) in the summer. I remember the “knish man” in the winter. He was a large, grungy-looking individual wrapped in about ten layers of clothing to withstand the cold he had to endure eight hours a day. When I saw the movie, “Fiddler On the Roof” years later, I remember thinking that Tevye looked just like the knish man! Funny how, as an adult, you think about things like where street vendors go to the bathroom and/or wash their hands. As a child, you couldn’t have cared less.
Growing up in Queens, we…
Growing up in Queens, we would also play stoopball a lot, but we played it with a baseball theme. If the ball bounced in front of the first defender and he missed it, then it was a single; between the two guys – double; from the second guy to the row of cars – a triple; and in the street was a homerun (assuming he didn’t catch it while dodging a car). Hitting a “pointer” just meant that you had a great shot at getting a homer.[
In elementary school at…
In elementary school at lunch recess on Long Island in the early 60’s, we used to play a game we called “Saloogie.” I have no idea where the name came from, but the game was essentially “keep away.” 2 teams, one trying to keep the ball(or shoe, or can) away from the other. The only rule was that there were no rules. We had a blast, and always returned from recess with bloody lips, noses, and knees.
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(www.streeplay.com: Home) (www.streeplay.com: Skully Central) (www.streetplay.com: Discussion Board home) (www.streetplay.com: Skully Central current discussion) This is the beginning of the Skully discussion board archive; the next installment can be found here. If you have something to add to our discussion of skully, skelly, skillsie, skillsies, skullsies or whatever you called it, please join the current Skully Central discussion here.