Tag Archives: spaldeen types
I grew up in the South Bronx…
I grew up in the South Bronx on E 142nd between Willis and Third Ave, back in the early 50s. I was the smallest kid on the block. Whenever we played stickball, the ball would inevitably end up going downhill into the sewer on Third Ave. The big kids would remove the grating, give me a coat hanger with a loop at the end of it and lower me down head first holding me by the ankles. I’d reach down with the coat hanger get it under the ball, scoop it up and toss it to the guys. Sometimes there would be other balls in there for awhile. you could tell because the submerged half would be a different color than the top. This was considered a real good thing by the guys cause we wouldn’t have to go and get 10 cents for a ball. My mom didn’t like it cause I’d come home smelling likt the sewer. One time when I was about 8 or 9 she really got disgusted, she stripped me down, threw me in the tub and beat the sh** out of me while scrubbing me down and yelling. Even that didn’t stop me. Being part of the boys was more important.
I grew up in Greenpoint…
I grew up in Greenpoint and we would play 4 corner slapball. We played in the middle of the street on the corner of Jackson and Leonard Streets. In the summer we’d play all day and during the school year we’d play as soon as we got homt. This was a major intersection so we had to be careful and to stop whenever the cars came. By 4:30 it started getting pretty hectic. We also had a sewer on one corner so we had to be real careful not to let the ball go down otherwise you had to fish it out. You couldn’t hit the ball on the fly – just ground balls. If you hit it over the infield you were out. Five guys or more could play per team. We’d play everyday using either the Spaldeen or Pensie Pinkie.
Does anyone remember that…
Now the Sky bounce balls…
I remember that there were…
I remember that there were 2 tests you gave a ball to check it. First you bounced to see if it was dead or live. Second, you sqeezed it to see if it was cracked, soft or hard. Once, I was in the candy store and a little kid was buying an egg ball and wanted to check it out. He innocently asked the store owner: “George, can I squeeze your balls”. We cracked up and the kid did not understand why. Remember stoop ball and 5 boxes.
Man, was I surprised and…
Man, was I surprised and excited to find this site!! First off to Hugh McNally…You’ve done an outstanding job of putting the rules together in an articulate manner. Very professional. (It reads like it was written by a technical writer.) Anyway, I played Skully (or Skelly?) growing up in the Bronx and Queens. The game was slightly different between the neighborhoods I grew up in. In lived in the Bronx until second or third grade. I remember playing first with the broken necks off Coca-Cola or Heinekein bottles which we removed by running the neck-end of the bottles over a manhole cover. Eventually we began using the glides off of the bottoms of chairs and desks. (The desks had large glides, while the chairs had smaller ones.) I remember melting down Crayola crayons into the gliders. (It was pretty cool trying to customize the colors in your cap for that unique look.) I remember just using the plucking technique. There were two: 1)Flicking the middle finger from contact with the thumb (for power shooting, i.e.- Blasting or for long-distance shots) and 2)Flicking the index finger from underneath the thumb, while using the other three fingers as a brace (much like when shooting pool). This technique worked best for finesse shots (i.e.- hitting your opponent soft enough to keep him around for bait on your next shot, or when shooting around the Skully so that you didn’t get stuck inside, or overshoot your intened box.) After moving to Queens (Springfield Gardens area), I remember using the caps off the Dellwood milk containers. We started weighting them down with candle wax. Wax was surpassed by Playdoh or clay later. But eventually the preferred top came to be the bottoms from Push-Up ice cream. We’d weight them down with multi-colors of clay and scrape them against the ground to help smooth them down underneath. They were awesome!!! We would even put a chrome tire valve cap (taken from a car or bicycle) in the center of the cap and use it as an aiming site! The other technique that I was introduced to in Queens was called, “Flying your cap”. This was usually used for covering very long distances (i.e.- shooting back into town to become (or after becoming?) a Killer.) It could also be used to shoot at any time. (It was preferred when shooting from corner to corner across the board.) This is how we did it: 1)Place the cap in between your thumb and the first digit of your middle finger 2)While keeping your forearm parallel to the ground and against your waist, pull your arm back 3)Push your arm forward briskly, while flicking the first digit of your middle finger forward (much like when some flicks away a cigarette butt) The top should now be propelled forward as it rotates (from the flicking of the finger) and should cover a long, or short distance (dependent on the force of the forwrd arm thrust and the flick of the finger). Using this technique you can hit your opponent from long distances. (Think of the little pistol with the rifle stock that Lee Van Cleef used in “For a Few Dollars More”). I also remember the start line being far enough from the “1” box that you’d be better suited trying to “fly your cap” than to pluck it. The shooting sequence of players was determined by the closest one to the “1” box. I also remember the fun of blasting your opponent so hard that he’d start rolling on his side all the way out of town (he wasn’t allowed to stop it on his own.) I live in California (Bay Area) and am 33 now, but still love to play. I’ve shown this game to my nieces and nephews and they all love it!! I’ve also shown it to a few of my buddies and they love it too! It’s like being a kid all over again. I just moved to a smaller town outside of San Jose, and intend on teaching the kids in the neighborhood and in my new congregation how to play this truly timeless game!!! Anyone out there, please feel free to e-mail me at: thunt [at] obsidianinc [dot] com or NYsquared [at] aol [dot] com P.S.- I also have fond memories of playing Stickball (played in the street or between two walls of a school builing), Ring-O-Leavio, Punchball (with the sponge ball or Pinky), Roundup, Freeze Tag, Dodge Ball, and the favaorite with the girls…Run, Catch, and Kiss.
For the record, I remember…
For the record, I remember we called them “Pensa Pinkies,” but these were the same squashy pink balls that everyone seems to call “Pensie Pinkies”. They were best for stoop ball. I wish I could remember how we played, but the point in our version I’m pretty sure was always how high and far the ball went, not where you bounced it from. We always aimed at the corner of the sidewalk and the street and tried to get the ball to rebound over the heads of our opponents to the opposite side of the street. We played on St. John’s Place in Brooklyn near the Botanical Gardens. This would have been about 1965. The game we called handball was just like baseball except that we hit the ball with our fist instead of a bat.
Wow, people who remember…
Wow, people who remember Skully! Just for the record, I remember playing the game in the early 60s, probably about 1965 in Brooklyn. We lived in a dead-end kind of street (St. John’s Place) near the Botanical Gardens, so cars weren’t too much of a problem. As I remember it, only bottle caps were allowed. We called it Skully. The start point was well away from the first box. For some reason I think we referred to using the finger-flick (middle or index finger against thumb) that propelled the cap as “binking.” All the caps I remember were made with crayons on the radiators, although I do remember Mom helping us by creating a double-boiler set-up on the stove to melt wax–she did it, of course, to avoid the waxy mess we’d make on the floors. The other (even messier) method was to fill the cap with crayon chips and then balance it on a hot desk lamp. We always drew the board with chalk. The board was about 5X7 feet. At the end you became a “killer.” We also had the three hits to get someone out and the rule about getting stuck in the center box, but I’m a bit hazy about the rules. This sure brings back memories, though. Does anyone remember “pensapinkies?” did everybody call those squashy pink stickball balls by that name? I think they actually were “Pennsylvania Pinkies.” Speaking of getting Mom angry, to make stickball bats we always cut off somebody’s broom and taped the cut end with black electrician’s tape. Somebody mentioned “Coco-Leavy-o.” Somehow I remember it as just “Cocoleo” but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was. Help! Now I live in Tokyo, where nobody has any idea what I’m talking about when it comes to street games. Thanks for the memories
I just wanted to put my…
I just wanted to put my 2 cents in from the Queens/Nassau line….In the 50’s and 60’s back there the game dictated the ball. Wall stickball, with lots of field area and several players per side – spaldeen. It went further, which was okay under these conditions. Stoop ball from one side of narrow street ( other curb = home run ) – Pensie Pinkie. It was softer, more contollable under those conditions. Life was great: stick ball, stoop ball, wiffle ball, 2-hand touch, 4 horses, Yoo-Hoos, baseball over the radio. Are Pensie Pinkies available anywhere?