Greenwich Village, 1958.
Ruby thought I should tell you the games we played growing up here. Well, I did, really. Ruby says you won’t care and we don’t play this stuff any more, but I said a lot of you don’t live in the city and you don’t KNOW all the cool games you can play here.
Ruby thought I should tell you the games we played growing up here. Well, I did, really. Ruby says you won’t care and we don’t play this stuff any more, but I said a lot of you don’t live in the city and you don’t KNOW all the cool games you can play here.
First, you need to know that most blocks in the Village have stoops, which means little stairs and railings, in front
of all the apartment buildings. (Ours doesn’t, but a lot of them do).
1.
Jumping Rails
My favorite game was
stoop jumping and I still do it every now and again. You start at one end of
the block and jump over the railings of each and every stoop until you get to
the end. Think it’s easy? Try it and see.
2.
Foot Races
These are just hundred-yard dashes up and down
the block. End of the block is the finish line.
You need to find a hockey stick and puck and
that’s not always easy, but lucky for us, Gordy’s dad let us use his hockey
stuff. You also need roller skates and somehow, Nell-mom found them for us. The
manhole cover on our block was the goal. You have to play close to the middle
of the block so you don’t lose your pucks down the sewer openings. Otherwise
it’s like hockey. Fun.
You get two teams and
the more kids that play, the better. We mostly had to go down to Brooklyn to my
friend Jerry’s house to play because there aren’t enough kids in the Village to
do it.
One team plays the horse. The leader stands
right up against a wall, and has to be kind of a tough guy. Each person after
him is part of the horse and has to bend over. The first buries his head in the
stomach of the leader. Other team members bend behind each other, grabbing each
other at the waist to form the back of the horse.
The other team mambers are called the riders.
They run,one at a time, and jump on the back of the horse as far as ahead as
possible to give other people room to land. You’re basically trying to see how
many kinds the horse can carry before it falls down.
I think of it as a real city game because it’s
all about how tough you can be. Ruby won’t play because she hates it. (Now and
again, though, I’d get Sophie to try. She would always be a rider.)
5. Kick the Box
You find a cardboard box about twenty inches in
size and kick it back and forth at each other – trying to “get” someone before
they get you. Object is to dodge the kick. You can play in the alley, basements
and even on someone’s roof, which is the
best, I think. You play with two people – sometimes more. Ruby is good
at this game but if she loses, she gets grumpy during dinner.
6.
Stickball
This is everybody’s favorite, I guess. It’s exactly
like baseball only you use a broomstick for a bat, a Spaldeen or tennis ball
instead of a baseball and manhole covers or whatever you can find instead of
bases.
Then there’s the stuff everybody plays, like
marbles or jacks or cat’s cradle. Lot of other city games too that you can find here.
I’d still play sometimes if there was anyone around here that wanted to. Don’t tell Ruby, though. She thinks we’re too old.
--Ray Tabeata
Stickball game: Cliff
Ray: family photo
--Ray Tabeata
Stickball game: Cliff
Ray: family photo
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