Tag Archives: I grew up…

I grew up in philly in the…

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I grew up in philly in the 60’s we had a game you played by yourself or with friends it was called mimseys. You threw the ball and sang a little song. Mimseys to clapseys tworl my hands to bapseys my right hand my left hand as high as the sky as low as the sea touch my knee touch my hell touch my toe and under we go each time you threw the ball against the wall and did a trick… mimseys was just throwing and catching then you threw and clapped and then caught the ball then you threw the ball and rolled your hands and then cought the ball.for bapseys you touched both of your shoulders and then caught the ball next you threw the ball and caught in your right hand and then the left next you threw the ball as high as you could and then catch it after that you threw it the tiniest that you could and caught it. then you threw the ball and touched your knee and caught it then your heel then your toe then you threw it under your led to the wall and caught it. IF you made all this perfectly you started all over but you must clap and the new skill for every catch Ex. clap and catch in right hand then clap and catch it in your left hand. This whole game was played off the wall with a pink ball

K. Traxler, I found this…

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K. Traxler, I found this while looking for the steps to a game we called “Africa.” My daughter is in fifth grade, and I’ve been racking my brain! Thanks for jogging my memory on the steps..I also remember leaning on one arm against the wall and tossing the ball under and around it and catching it; bouncing it ‘overhand’ clapping and then catching it without it bouncing; standing with back to the wall and bouncing it between the legs and turning to catch it without moving your feet. Goodness knows how many varieties there are! I grew up in NH :o) thanks again!

Love this site! I grew…

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Love this site! I grew up in Astoria, very familiar with “Last Licks” and “Chips on the Ball”. The home team, or team batting in the bottom of the inning was the team who got “Last licks”. “Chips on the Ball” meant, if the ball was lost or split ( Spaldings had way of splitting at the seams) the person who hit it had to give the guy who brought the ball money to buy a new one.

Gary, I grew up in Howard…

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Gary, I grew up in Howard Beach , Queens and although 12 years your senior, even “back then” we used the term ‘chips on the ball’. Which indictaed the owner of the ball expected to be re-imbumbursed or have the ball replaced by anyone who caused it be lost (sewer, roof top), or broken. And I agree with your definition of “last licks”. Don’t see why anything one of the Yankee announcers (corporate shills) say should bother you. The default is that they’re wrong. I’ve been a Yankee fan since 1956 and this is the worst crew (by far) they’ve ever had.

I grew up in East New York…

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I grew up in East New York and Howard Beach. We played punchball in both neighborhoods,but not as Peter B. described above. Punchball, which we prefered the Pensie Pinkie for due to it’s being softer was basically played the same as baseball (on the street, in parking lot, even a driveway between houses when we were younger (in this version if you hit the wall on the fly you were out). The “batter” punched the ball (anyway he pleased), but overhand produced longer hits. In H.B. we played a game called “slapball” which was similar to Peter’s version of punchball, but played with out 2nd base. The field was a small triangle, the pitcher who stood in the center of the triangle had to pitch the ball over the plate, underhanded, on one bounce. The batter could wait for a pich he like, when the ball was hit, openhanded, it could not pass the line between 1st and 3rd or the batter was out. All other rules were the same as baseball (no stealing). The Spaldeen was our preferred ball for stickball since it was more durable. Of course most of the time we played with any ball we could fish out of a sewer, or pull out of a drainpipe that we’d climb up to.

I agree. I grew up on the…

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I agree. I grew up on the Carlton Ave side of Ft. Greene. There was truly a sense of family Skelzies,punchball,co-co-levio,rollerskating were some of the regular games. On our side we had the Willoughby Center, were we shot pool, played ping-ping, and spades till 11:00 at night

Wow. this brings back memories….

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Wow. this brings back memories. I grew up on Bowers Street and Milton avenue in Jersey City NJ and we had a board cut into the street with our pocket knives. I use to love kicksies and we called the game simply bottle caps and played for hours on end, games like wiffle ball, fly’s up and of course nerf footballs kept us out of trouble and parents never wondered where you were because the world was a much safer place. I just had a bottle cap lying around and decide to show my kids what we did with them and now they want to play. I would love to see a big tournament somewhere. I would go get some glass bottles and make my “Glassies” We did that by finding a sewer plate and rolling the top of the bottle around over the ridges until it fell off, rub it into the strret to make it smooth and you had one heck of a cap to play with. Thanks for the memories Thanks