Tag Archives: Summer

I grew up in Boston (Charlestown)…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I grew up in Boston (Charlestown) in the 60’s. We played half ball with two players up against the doctor’s building near the monument. It was a solid 3 story brick building with just a few windows on the side of the street where we played. It was a great game because you only needed two kids and you could get a ball fairly cheap at Connie’s down the street. We’d cut a pimple ball in half and play for hours. Our rules were a hit to the opposite sidewalk was a single. Up to the first floor was a double, second floor a triple and third floor a homer. You could catch the ball off the building and it was an out. Or, you could play a one bounce rule and it was still an out. We usually used an old broomstick and threw some tape around one end for a grip. We’d always get in trouble because the doctor’s receptionist sat at the window and we’d inevitably slam one into it several times during the course of the afternoon. I don’t think we ever tried too, but it just happened over the course of the game. She was always yelling at us or telling our mothers to stop us from scaring the patients. 🙂 Those days bring back fond memories of living in the city and spending hot summer afternoons whacking around a half ball like our favorite RedSox players did at Fenway. Glad to see that some people are still keeping the memories of that game going after all these yrs. Thanks!

Does anyone remember the…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

Does anyone remember the type of knock hockey boards that we used to play with in the late 60’s to early 70’s in New York? I could have sworn they were orange and blue, possibly made by AMF. I remember playing knock hockey a lot during summer day camp in the Harlem River projects.

This site is the greatest….

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

This site is the greatest. My cousin and all my friends played skully for hours on end all summer in the 1940s in Manhattan. I taught my grandson how to play, my kitchen table became a skully board. I printed out the rules and board for him to share with his friends. Hopefully, skully will be around forever. We didn’t have any material goods in those days, but life was sweet and we were creative and enjoyed life.

I remember growin’ up in…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I remember growin’ up in Jamaica Queens, actually Rochdale village building 11 PLAY GROUND AREA. any way…..summer of 1980 ’til 82 it was popular. If you threw your top and it landed in box 1, that was considered an automatic POP so you got to go to 13 and hit the numbers backwards upon completion you had to complete landing in the trapazoid shapes surrounding the number 13. As you got into each box you would say I – AM-A-KILLER-DILLER. As you became KD you had to ask all the others players for “a corner”. The player had to choose one of those 4 outer corners. This was the corner that the Killer Diller had to put his top in the corner and BLAST your top out of square you were in. And he repeated for the remaining players What a memory…we settled our grievences …in game not violence. A frequently heard popular summertime shout would be “HEY, who wanna getta game?” and it was understood that the game that would get got was Skelly. Well that’s how it went down that sweltering Wednesday late afternoon in summer of ’81…Dellick got an automatic pop and within 7 minutes he called me from my corner and blasted me out of the game. Actually I heard the shout“KILLA DILLA” many times during that sweltering summer.” Hey Gary, Erik, Dellick,Willie, and Kim, where are you now?”And i shoulda known….. ’cause it was just a Jamaica tale!

I remember growin’ up in…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I remember growin’ up in Jamaica Queens, actually Rochdale village building 11 PLAY GROUND AREA. any way…..summer of 1980 ’til 82 it was popular. If you threw your top and it landed in box 1, that was considered an automatic POP so you got to go to 13 and hit the numbers backwards upon completion you had to complete landing in the trapazoid shapes surrounding the number 13. As you got into each box you would say I – AM-A-KILLER-DILLER. As you became KD you had to ask all the others players for “a corner”. The player had to choose one of those 4 outer corners. This was the corner that the Killer Diller had to put his top in the corner and BLAST your top out of square you were in. And he repeated for the remaining players What a memory…we settled our grievences …in game not violence. A frequently heard popular summertime shout would be “HEY, who wanna getta game?” and it was understood that the game that would get got was Skelly. Well that’s how it went down that sweltering Wednesday late afternoon in summer of ’81…Dellick got an automatic pop and within 7 minutes he called me from my corner and blasted me out of the game. Actually I heard the shout“KILLA DILLA” many times during that sweltering summer.” Hey Gary, Erik, Dellick,Willie, and Kim, where are you now?”And i shoulda known….. ’cause it was just a Jamaica tale!

I was listening to my 12yo…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I was listening to my 12yo son and his cousin playing in the yard when scully came to mind. So I rushed to my computer and did a search. This websight was one of the results. I used to play scully back in the mid to late 50’s at the P.S. 39 playground in Queens, NY during the summer. The board was painted on the ground but I don’t remember if it was concrete or asphalt. The Park’s Dept. officer would hold tournaments weekly. There were no prizes. You just got your name posted as the “champ”. I’m going to teach my son the game. Hopefully, he’ll like it and get scully going here in California. Bob Schulken/Escondido, CA

Hi from Canada – (just north…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

Hi from Canada – (just north of Toronto, Ontario) Just found this website and love it. We played outside ALL THE TIME in the summer, from dawn til dusk, and even later. We used to play Kick the Can a lot, as we had acres of lawn and fields to hide around. Another good one was 500 UP, on a large, flat front lawn next door. Lots of skipping, and rubber ball games, etc. I’ve had a lot of fun reading all of the rhymes and remembering – Thanks! Susan C

I grew up in Flatbush Brooklyn….

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I grew up in Flatbush Brooklyn. I am 40 yrs old now. We lived on the streets as kids. Our imagination was not provided by a computer or a video game. We had very little money so we had to play with things like skully, stick ball, johhnie on the pony, kick the can, hide the belt, ringoleavio, tag, army, and the fondest memories included building a go cart in the garage. The pride we had rolling that baby onto the street is unmatched in todays children. They would rather buy one. I remember playing skully all summer long. There must have been 40 kids on my block on East 35th street. We made our board with a screwdriver when the tar softened from the summer heat. The rain never washed away our board. I remember the black knees, the worn out middle finger nail, and the extentsive efforts at finding the best cap we could find. Sometimes a kid would show up with what he thought was the cap of all caps, only to find out that it didn’t do the job on the court. One never knew until they actually played the game. Those were the fondest days. The long hot summer nights, the families on the sidewalk in the folding lawn chairs watching the Mets on a black and white TV with a coat hanger as an antenna. (dont forget the aluminum foil) Kids running around with jelly jars catching lightning bugs until “rocky” the ice cream man showed up. The stoop was an institution. We had nothing, but we were rich in that we were never bored. My kids tell me they are bored all the time. We give them so much, that we never let them learn to value things. It’s sad in a way. I loved my life on the streets in Brooklyn in the 1970’s. Thanks for this web site

We played stickball everyday…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

We played stickball everyday during the summer months on the asphalt sofball field at P.S. 133 in Bellerose Queens in the early ’60’s. Lots of strikeouts, but, nothing like the no vibration feel of hitting the sweet spot of a Pensie Pinkie ball. When hit well it would either be a solid 1 -2 hop ground ball or fly over the fences. Hit over the 30′ high fence and landing into the handball courts in leftfield was a double. Hitting the back fence on a fly in the handball courts was a triple Over that back fence in the handball courts onto the street was a homerun. There simply was no comparison to hitting the Pensie Pinky. Sometimes the ball would glance off the end of the bat and distort itself which caused it to seemingly slowly come off the bat and stretch itself out and you’d never know what direction it would go when it finally hit the ground. Pensie’s also kept their subtleness better when left outside for long periods of time as opposed to the Spaldeen. Pensie was the way to go.

I am spreading skelly fever…

Streetplay Discussion Archive Posted on by
[e-mail]"; } ?>
 

I am spreading skelly fever to my students in school. I will be painting 3 skelly courts in the school yard and teaching the basic during my science class relating the miovement of the caps to Newton’s laws of Motion. I have already taught this game to campers in a summer camp in Oxford NY where I have painted 7 outdoor courts and 3 indoor courts. We have team play and tournaments with trophies. I learned the game while growing up in Queen, NY at the Pomonok housing project.