October 3, 2005

Street Games

I can't claim to have been a street kid.

Protected Jewish nerd is more like it. I got my strength from lugging books on unlikely subjects from the 96th Street Library to 89th--and back. But I did escape to street life every now and then, between doses of Milton and Schopenhauer (well, not really, but close, for a 9-year-old).






This is a "Spaldeen," a fine rubber ball that you could buy at the cornder candy or cigar store and use to play Chinese handball (using the sidewalk squares and a windowless wall, or stickball (using parked cars as bases).









Rougher and maybe more fun were Ringalevio and Johnny on the Pony. You can get the idea of the latter here:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

not sure how i feel about Schopenhauer now. Had one of those balls, though, decades later