And when I went bowling, a gutter ball.
Later
Frank Pepe says I am right.
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Later
Punchball, stickball, hardball, softball, basketball, tag/freeze tag, hide & seek, riding bikes....We all never stopped moving. We were all mostly rail thin and in great physical shape.
Stickball, How 'bout Ring-A-Levio? (Caught, Caught Ring-A-Levio)
The rich kids had spaldeens and premade stickball bats. Not so rich had pennsy pinkies and a broom handle taped and cut down.
So how did your neighborhood play stickball? One bounce, hit it and run the bases or strikezone against the wall and distance? For us it was how many were playing. Needed at least 6 for the street game but only two "against the wall".
Although the strikezone game is better with a tennisball so you can throw curves.
When was the last time you saw any kids doing this?
We also had a full 9 man baseball team (when you are a boomer, you had kids your age in almost every house) so we can play more often than any league. Way better than little league or Colt. We grew up next to a big county park. One side was a white collar neighborhood, one a blue collar and we played each other almost everyday. Wouldn't it be great to do this all over again and play ball again but girls and music put an end to that back then. Never occurred to me that we replaced good clean fun with the two most costly and emotional aspects of young (and old) adult life
DId you guys actually play Johnny on a Pony? I've never even seen that done.
City kids and Long Island kids were very different. One of the city kids moved in when we were preteens and it was like he was 10 years older than us. Cigarettes, stealing sips of daddy's booze, Playboy collection, etc. Shocking! Still haven't caught up
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City kids and Long Island kids were very different. One of the city kids moved in when we were preteens and it was like he was 10 years older than us. Cigarettes, stealing sips of daddy's booze, Playboy collection, etc. Shocking! Still haven't caught up
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Wow you are all so old. Glad I am only 29
I had heard of the games, but never played Johnny On A Pony or Ringalevio. And I agree with your other post above about using sawed off broom sticks in place of stickball bats. Our Moms often wondered WTF happened to their brooms. lol Of course you needed to add some black electrical tape to the broom sticks.DId you guys actually play Johnny on a Pony? I've never even seen that done.
City kids and Long Island kids were very different. One of the city kids moved in when we were preteens and it was like he was 10 years older than us. Cigarettes, stealing sips of daddy's booze, Playboy collection, etc. Shocking! Still haven't caught up
And our version of stickball was against a wall with a painted strike zone, too. I never played the version in the street. That was reserved for touch football where we'd go blasting into cars, dent others with errant throws, and/or almost get killed making a catch into an intersection without looking for traffic.
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How did we go from pizza to Johnny on a pony.....this enough for CH to drink Bud light.
My college friends and I were playing touch football in the street in front of McSorley's at around 2 AM and some spoilsport neighbor called the cops on us. Ah, the memories.
Later
That's an absolute classic. But now you have me thinking about the ale, cheese plate and the DOUR bartenders. I loved that place.
I knew it they would not let you into Mcso
rleys lol
It is a special place...vomit on the tables & all
Got to know the bartenders well there years ago. one of my top three bars in the world
I never puked in the place. But I have witnessed a few unfortunate souls in their agony. Several were drunken females who created much levity in our group. lol
I was just poking fun at the bartenders. Yeah, they were a gloomy bunch. But can you blame them with all the drunken slobs demanding refills? They were actually pretty cool once they knew you.
Two bars that I still miss from my NYC days are McSorley's and Old Town Tavern. We'd always wind up at the Old Town after playing in a work softball league.
Damn. E3rd between Ditmas and F here.
When I was just toddler mom used to make me one before bed every night. If I remember her recipe and order was Irish Cream , Vodka , kahlua , in bottle , replace nipple shake,slam bedroom door.
The good old days!
You missed the best one, putting the sprinkler cap on the Johnny pump in the summer, or just using a tin can to sray the water.
Played Johnny-On-The-Pony often. We were on a budget. We chipped in to buy a "Spaldeen", if we were short ,a Pennsy Pinkie would have to do. We also played, "Ring -A-Levio". Run, free your teammates, pretty much mindless. See below.DId you guys actually play Johnny on a Pony? I've never even seen that done.
City kids and Long Island kids were very different. One of the city kids moved in when we were preteens and it was like he was 10 years older than us. Cigarettes, stealing sips of daddy's booze, Playboy collection, etc. Shocking! Still haven't caught up
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