intersted if anyone remembers a game called “Time”….played it on the stoops in brooklyn (55-63) although i remember nothing else about it…fill me in if u are aware of the game..thanks
I live in Long Island but grew up in Queens and my wife grew up in Brooklyn. When we are home relaxing and hanging out we sit on the front stoop. Another couple from Howard Beach moved in on the block and then sit on the front stoop too, but all the people who grew up on Long Island sit in the backyard. You don’t get to know your neighbors as easily as you used to.
Behind Wilson High School in WAshington, DC there used to be a huge field where the neighborhood boys would gather for a game of baseball in the Summers. Mom must have asked my two big brothers to keep an eye on their little sister, because I remember them consenting to “let me play..” by backing up the kid who backed up the catcher. If the baseball made it by all of us, it was sure to roll across Nebraska Ave, into the SEWER! The reovery procedure required the use of a belt from one of the guys. It was guided into the sewey cover holes, and the cover was carefully raised. Then it was my turn to “play.” Guess who got to be hung upside down into the hole..to pluck the baseball out of the muck. Uck! I can still remember that odor. At least they made me feel like a hero, and I soon found that picking the butterflys off of my mother’s prize zinnias with another “little sister” was much more to my liking.
We used to hang out on the stoop of an apartment building on 73rd st and 13th ave in Dyker Heights Brooklyn and when we made too much noise, one of the tenants 4 floors up used to throw a pot of water out the window to chase us away….
grew up in e.n.y. section of brooklyn.our sports equipment was,broom stick,can, spaldeen(correct spelling), stoop,alley way,one look out for the bad neighbor who would take our balls(no pun intended) lived on van siclen and belmont from 1943 to 1963. went to p.s. 158 jhs 149 and jefferson h.s. played punchball against other streets(hendrix st, miller ave,schneck ave,wyona street.) we were all poor but did not know it.every street had one “rich kid” who had parents with a car.now live in south fla.
We didn’t call the game Mother May I, we called it Giant Steps. We had a great group of kids living in our development (about a dozen four story buildings encircling a courtyard, which was our world). No one really got picked on; we all kind of just goofed around with each other good naturedly. We took turns being the king of the hill, and we took turns being the one being goofed on. Sometimes we’d get eight giant steps, sometimes we’d get one baby step. It was lots of fun. There was also a fenced-in lawn in the center of the courtyard. We’d run races around the lawn, starting at the same point, each runner going in opposite direction around the circumference of the lawn (which seemed enormous at the time). Who ever got back to “home base” first won. The stoop was reserved for more reserved games like house, horses and Barbies. We had a deluxe stoop; it was almost like a cement deck. There was plenty of room to congregate and go into our little fantasy worlds up there. Once in a while we would get showered with pennies by some kind stranger who would throw them down to us in the middle of our play. We never found out who that was. We thought it was magic.
we use to have some steel bars on the corner of w. 174th street and nelson avenue. we use to sit on the bars at night. About 10 feet from the bars was a rather large triangle shaped intersection where during the day on weekends and in the summer we played “off the curb.” Bring back any memories for anyone? E-mail me at FOlshan [at] Tribune [dot] com
We called it mother may I? But to me this is real little kid stuff and the real hanging out came later on when you sat there or stood there thinking you looked oh so cool. Maybe some running around, like tag. Or maybe taking each other to the really dark parts of the block, and having someone already there to spook the person you brought there. Different kinds of dares to each other. I bet you won’t go down there and bring back whatever to prove that you actually did it. I never smoked, but that was part of what a lot of my friends did in those truely hanging – hanging out evenings. Oh you had your spot and you just knew if you passed by whatever spot after a certain time your buddies would be there.
I remember sitting on the stoop on a hot summer’s night, before A/C, waiting for a breeze to come by.