I grew up in Canarsie and played this game in the playground for years. My brothers and I would melt the crayons for the caps in my easy bake oven. I was telling my husband about this (only married over a year and an old friend of my brothers) and he had heard the stories from my brothers. We live in Maine and are going to get some chalk and play on our driveway. What a great memory!!!!
this is an all out challenge i coach a group of kids in the east harlem projects where i grew up and if any 1 who is reading this reach me at justussports [at] yahoo [dot] com i have pics on my facebook page look up angelo martinez pics also on myspace.com/justussports..it would be cool to hear from any 1 because we r the bestttttt we play with pocker chips the best
I grew up in South Philly around 21st and Mifflin, born in 1953. For some crazy reason I could never figure out, we had names for some games others referred to differently. Sometimes I thought it was an East of Broad, West of Broad thing. For example, instead of Chink we called it Dinky. Instead of Hide the Belt we called it Hot Beans. Instead of Jailbreak we called it Releasio. Any input on anyone for this? Also, anyone remember making Bottle Top Shooters?
I grew up in Frankford and I was just telling a friend, there should be a site archiving the games we played on the “Streets of Philadelphia” I did a search and here it is!!! How cool is that!? Would anyone remember the rules for “Spring?” Please post them or you can email me direct. skylertking [at] yahoo [dot] com
It is great to know there are others out there that remember this game. I grew up in Chicago in the 70’s and learned this at a summer camp at a YMCA near Fullerton and Central Park. We called it skully caps. My memory of the rules and board are sketchy and my husband thought I was crazy. Now I have proof and the rules of play to teach my son!
I grew up in Brooklyn (MacDougal Street) between Ralph and Howard Avenues. Went to P.S. 40, George Washington Carver. I am so enthusiastic about finding this site. I currently live in Maryland but have lived all over and NEVER found anyone knowing of Skelly. I use to play with Lorenzo (LO or China) Raymond, Johnny, Junior,Squeechy and many, many others. Summers in Brooklyn, the memories are the best!!! Get at me if anyone is from this area of Brooklyn. I miss home. I was Michael ( Mike ) Red Devil, Dazz etc.
Just got through reading all the entries, and thought I would add a few things. I grew up in the bronx during the depression and we used “Spaldeens”. It si my understanding that these inexpensive balls (10 cents at the time) were made by Spaulding and were actually tennis ball “rejects” that didn’t meet the bounce tests. Therefore they didn’t coat them with the fuzzy coating, but sold them as is. A comment on the origin of the game “skully”. I have heard that mosaics in ancient Rome have shown “Skully” layouts. Any truth to these stories??
What a fun site brings back such wonderful memories of youth! I grew up in Brooklyn during the 70’s and during the summer all the kids on the block (and it seemed everywhere in NYC) would play Skelsies (or Skully), morning til night, we’d even play it under city street lamps. The most popular cap that we used was typically a milk jug cap and we would fill it with either melted crayon or putty clay as well. But, I haven’t seen any children play this game in years, seems as if the game has disappeared. But, what great memories of a fun game played on the streets of my youth.
I grew up in SW Philly near 68th and Woodland Avenues. We played Buck-Buck, but the first person on the team being jumped on wrapped his arms around a telephone pole. Once, one of the guys on the jumping team jumped so far he knocked himself out when he slammed into the pole. My friend’s brother broke his instep when he was the last guy bending over and the last jumper missed the stack and landed on his foot, which had the toes to the ground and heel up in the air. Ouch! The younger kids in our neighborhood played “shadow tag” at night. If you were “it”, instead of tagging someone you had to step on their shadow. Another game for younger kids was “Red Light, Green Light”. We also played various forms of “chicken”, which usually involved running in front of a car and seeing how close you could get without getting run over. In the winter if there was snow on the ground, we’d “ski” on the streets by grabbing hold of the back of a bus when it stopped and getting pulled along when it started to move.