Tag Archives: I grew up…

I grew up in Richmond Hill…

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I grew up in Richmond Hill NY, playing skelly every day, come summer time in Smokey Park in the early 70’s. I remember using crayons and the rim of the glass beer bottle to make a skelly cap, but there was one more way of doing it that was my favorite. We’d take a twist off beer cap, find a plastic soda cap, and some small pieces of glass for weight. I’d dig the plastic insert piece out of the soda cap. The glass went inside the beer bottle cap and the plastic piece was fitted in side the beer bottle cap, over the glass upside down, to hold the glass in place.I remember always giving the new cap a real good rubbing on the ground to roughen it up. I was a good shooter and didnt want it flying anywhere I didnt want it to. I have taught my kids how to play all the street games I can still remember. Their favorites are: I Declare War, Box Ball, Chinese Hand Ball and Stoop ball and Red Rover.

My brother, Clyde, and I…

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My brother, Clyde, and I grew up in Queens, where, like all our peers, we played several versions of stickball. We are now 67 and 64 years old, and while I now live in Georgia and he on Long Island, every so often we get together to play a 2-man game with tennis balls and a manufactured bat. Our latest game was just a month ago against a wall at an elementary school near his house. He is still a good pitcher and we both still hit well, and since the baseball adage “good pitching will always beat good hitting” is true in stickball, too, he won the game. It was great.

I grew up in the Pomonok…

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I grew up in the Pomonok project across from Queens College in the ’50’s and early ’60’s. Where we were Pensies were rarely available, though known of. Any of you remember that spaldeens varied somewhat in pressure. I’d go through the box and find the hardest ones I could. They could be punched further, hit further, but their principle advantage was in handball, if you were over six feet. It was an equalizer when playing with a short guy with better skills. In close play, a low hit would send it caroming over his reach. By the way Geoff, you sure could split a spaldeen with a broom stick or those slightly larger stickball bats that were sold in some places. A baseball bat compresses the ball too much and creates a greater area of contact making a split less likely. We used to turn the splits inside out and throw them. they moved like maniacal frisbees and were almost impossible to catch. Any of you remember three box baseball, a pavement game we played when it was just too hot and humid to play anything else?

I grew up around Trinity…

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I grew up around Trinity Ave (saint marys project). We played skellys 60’s and 70’s.. until dark starting from midday. My top was a yellow disk from the school board little wax (To much would make the top wiggle when you “hunch it”.)One word we would yell “Sweepstakes”BEFORE your top got sent for a long journey By the time you got back you the board we were already well into the game. Anyone ever split a spinning top and the reward was getting that color on yours.What fun brings back so many memories.

I grew up in Laurelton, L.I,…

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I grew up in Laurelton, L.I, N.Y. in the 50’s and 60’s. I used to get the ‘Pinkys’ for 5 cents and the Spauldeens for 10 cents. The Pinkys were softer, smoother and had that great new rubber smell. They would hand bounce better than the Spauldeen. The words and logo on the Pinky was in dark blue. I guess to keep them newer longer, I used to fill in the words/logo as they wore off with a blue BIC. The Pinky had a thin black seam and that was it’s weakness. Many times a solid hit with a wood bat would split the Pinky right on that seam. The Spauldeens were rough texture, ‘chalky’ bounced less but ‘never broke’. In all fairness, we kids never used stickball bats, but used heavy wood Baseball bats. Thank You.

I grew up in the bronx 60’s…

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I grew up in the bronx 60’s and 70’s…158th st between 3rd ave and elton. ave and skelsies was a game we would play all day. We used to take the bottom off of chairs in school and used crayon wax to fill our tops….we would have differend sizes and all would be filled with your special color…Its funny im 48 and remember filling mine with yellow…… remember: hit a killa be a killa….

I grew up playing skelsies…

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I grew up playing skelsies (as we called it in Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY) and we used the red milk bottle tops filled with candle wax. We sometimes put a penny in the middle for weight. I’m in West Virginia now and I’m about to show these kids how we did in Brooklyn.

Hey..52nd street.. I grew…

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Hey..52nd street.. I grew up in Guttenberg NJ (Hudson County) we also played ringalerio and box ball etc… Being a girl I played that game mentioned above called Russia.. I cannot for the life of me. I just came inside from my porch trying to teach one of my daughters and was searching the internet for the rules of that game.. Anyone else know??