"THOSE WERE THE DAYS"

[Tony Page]

I lived in Brooklyn until after I graduated high school, and then my family moved to Long Island. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 50s, I was never bored between my friends and family there was always something going on.

I spent a lot of time on the streets playing all sorts of games, remember back then we had no electronics, or internet. When I came "downstairs" (we lived on the second floor) and met my friends, the first question we asked was, "What do you want to do or what do you want to play?"

Some toys had seasons when they were popular, they were the "in" thing to play with, like tops, marbles, and pea shooters. At Easter time, it was paddle ball, bubbles (both soap & plastic), and jump rope.

Many times, we'd say let's go to a movie. Sometimes, one of us couldn't get the quarter from our parents, we all would chip in, if we could. There were two movies by us we called the "dumps", for a quarter you spent at lease 6 hours in the theater and never saw the same thing twice. A usual outing would consist of 3 "B" movies, cartoons, chapters (serials), 3 stooges, or other short comedies.
Of course, sometimes we didn't have enough money for all of us to go to the movies.We never would leave a friend behind. Instead, we'd play a street game.

Some Street games didn't require anything special to play. We had a large assortment of games we could play like Johnny on the pony, tag, box tag, coco-levio, scully (needed a piece of chalk), or leap frog.

If we could dig up or buy a Spalding ball, there was a whole bunch of games we could play, like hand ball, stoop ball, slap ball, stick ball, box ball, night ball or if you could find a decent empty can there was kick the can.

One of my favorite games was punch ball. It required a tennis ball, that was wrapped in paper and set afire. It had to be burned just enough to get the fuzz off. It would be a light brown color when done. This game was played on the street and was similar to baseball, except there was no pitcher, you hit the ball with your hand. You could slap or punch the ball. A ball that landed on the sidewalk was an automatic out. Some of us could hit the ball more than 2 sewers. Some could slap the ball with a downward motion, so it would spin, causing it to curve in flight. I've seen some players curve the ball around a light pole.

I could go on there was so much more we flipped for baseball cards, build scooters out of crates, traded comic books, collected cardboard to make a few pennies selling it. Most importantly it was friends playing together, with the bare minimum, not some expensive Nintendo or Xbox.

I have no clue how we learned to play all these different games except it had to be handed down from the older kids. Wherever they came from I enjoyed playing them.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

That sounds like you had a lot of friends and a lot of fun growing up in Brooklyn, @Tony Page . I grew up in a small north Idaho town, and the neighborhood kids also played together, but not all the games that you played, and not that many of us.
I mostly remember playing cowboys and Indians in the summer, and sometimes at night we played games in the lot across the street , or built snow forts in the winter snow. I remember playing Red Rover, but I think we also played other similar games.

Because it was a small town, we only had one movie theater, and they had Saturday afternoon matinee, which is when kids could go to the movies alone. Otherwise , movies were only at night, and you had to be with a parent to attend. At 10 o’clock each night, a loud siren would blow from the fire station, and that meant all kids under 16 were supposed to be inside and off of the streets. As long as we were just out there playing in the empty lot, no one cared if we were out later, but it was usually time we all had to go in and get ready for bed anyway.

Sandpoint is near a large lake, so in the summer, we all looked forward to going swimming at the beach. It was further away than we could walk, so we only got to go swimming when our parents took us to the beach. We also had swimming lessons every year, and most of the kids did that to learn how o swim.

In the winter, we had a lot of snow, so sledding was the thing to be doing for most of the winter. Some parts of town had streets with hills for kids to sled down, but my part of town was pretty flat, so we had to push each other to get started. Some of the older boys would “hockey-bob”, which was grabbing the bumper of a passing car and being pulled along by the car for a ways. It was illegal (and very dangerous); so we weren’t supposed to do that, and I never did.
This is me with my dog, Bonzo, sitting on the snow pile out in front of our house in the winter, early 50’s.

 

[Tony Page]

That sounds like you had a lot of friends and a lot of fun growing up in Brooklyn, @Tony Page . I grew up in a small north Idaho town, and the neighborhood kids also played together, but not all the games that you played, and not that many of us.
I mostly remember playing cowboys and Indians in the summer, and sometimes at night we played games in the lot across the street , or built snow forts in the winter snow. I remember playing Red Rover, but I think we also played other similar games.

Because it was a small town, we only had one movie theater, and they had Saturday afternoon matinee, which is when kids could go to the movies alone. Otherwise , movies were only at night, and you had to be with a parent to attend. At 10 o’clock each night, a loud siren would blow from the fire station, and that meant all kids under 16 were supposed to be inside and off of the streets. As long as we were just out there playing in the empty lot, no one cared if we were out later, but it was usually time we all had to go in and get ready for bed anyway.

Sandpoint is near a large lake, so in the summer, we all looked forward to going swimming at the beach. It was further away than we could walk, so we only got to go swimming when our parents took us to the beach. We also had swimming lessons every year, and most of the kids did that to learn how o swim.

In the winter, we had a lot of snow, so sledding was the thing to be doing for most of the winter. Some parts of town had streets with hills for kids to sled down, but my part of town was pretty flat, so we had to push each other to get started. Some of the older boys would “hockey-bob”, which was grabbing the bumper of a passing car and being pulled along by the car for a ways. It was illegal (and very dangerous); so we weren’t supposed to do that, and I never did.
This is me with my dog, Bonzo, sitting on the snow pile out in front of our house in the winter, early 50’s.

View attachment 439

Wonderful memories, I like the photo It has a "feel" to it. Bonzo is beautiful, and looks like a good companion.
We also played Cowboys and Indians as well as cops and robbers, Especially after Christmas, if we got a cap gun or rifle, if not a hand with a pointed finger or a stick would do.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I spent a lot of time on the streets playing all sorts of games, remember back then we had no electronics, or internet.

I grew up in a tiny mid-western town, they called it a village actually, and in spite of having a very middle class upbringing, I absolutely hated it. The streets were all dirt roads except for two, a county highway that went through town, and one that passed by on the north end of town was a state highway. It was pretty much farm country.

The town was surrounded on all sides by what seemed to be never ending corn fields. Talk about boring. But in all fairness, I had five friends and we were always using those corn fields for our entertainment.

My Dad was in the military and drew us a map of the town and surrounding fields, divided into "sectors", and we drew names and sectors out of a hat, three guys to a team. We used it when we played what was basically a primitive "Capture the Flag" version of Paintball, using water balloons filled with water dyed with food coloring.

Sometimes other kids we knew joined our games, and if there was an odd number of people, instead of "Capture the Flag" we played "Capture the Fugitives", in a Bonnie and Clyde Gang scenario. We would set up teams to chase the fugitives and however many people there were determined how many people were on each team.

We tried to keep it even, so that there were the same number of people on each team of cops and the fugitives. The fugitives always got the odd number, whether it was more or less people that the rest of the teams.

It was "Mom Approved" because the food coloring would either wash out or if we used too much of it, or it would make dyed t-shirts that looked pretty cool. Sadly, the colors faded away rather quickly. They rarely lasted longer than summer before turning back to the typical dingy off-white like most white t-shirts you often see in farm country.

The food coloring would also do no harm to the farmer's crops. My Dad told us it would take more than food coloring to make corn grow in colors other than yellow. We had no idea what he was talking about and took his word for it.

Much like many video games that would come decades later, you had X number of lives per game. If you got hit at or below the waist you survived the attack, but above the waist, you were dead. My Mom gave us some strips of fabric so we could keep track of how many lives you lost.

You had to take five strips of your teams color and tuck them under your belt. If you were killed, you had to give up a strip to whoever killed you. If you were hit at below your beltline, you had to sit out for for a few minutes, because you were just "wounded" and you got to keep your strip because you were not killed. To say the very least, we went through a lot of balloons and food coloring...

In winter, our favorite way to pass time was building snow forts and having snowball fights. Sometimes we would get daring and attack trains as they passed through town.

 

[Tony Page]

I grew up in a tiny mid-western town, they called it a village actually, and in spite of having a very middle class upbringing, I absolutely hated it. The streets were all dirt roads except for two, a county highway that went through town, and one that passed by on the north end of town was a state highway. It was pretty much farm country.

The town was surrounded on all sides by what seemed to be never ending corn fields. Talk about boring. But in all fairness, I had five friends and we were always using those corn fields for our entertainment.

My Dad was in the military and drew us a map of the town and surrounding fields, divided into "sectors", and we drew names and sectors out of a hat, three guys to a team. We used it when we played what was basically a primitive "Capture the Flag" version of Paintball, using water balloons filled with water dyed with food coloring.

Sometimes other kids we knew joined our games, and if there was an odd number of people, instead of "Capture the Flag" we played "Capture the Fugitives", in a Bonnie and Clyde Gang scenario. We would set up teams to chase the fugitives and however many people there were determined how many people were on each team.

We tried to keep it even, so that there were the same number of people on each team of cops and the fugitives. The fugitives always got the odd number, whether it was more or less people that the rest of the teams.

It was "Mom Approved" because the food coloring would either wash out or if we used too much of it, or it would make dyed t-shirts that looked pretty cool. Sadly, the colors faded away rather quickly. They rarely lasted longer than summer before turning back to the typical dingy off-white like most white t-shirts you often see in farm country.

The food coloring would also do no harm to the farmer's crops. My Dad told us it would take more than food coloring to make corn grow in colors other than yellow. We had no idea what he was talking about and took his word for it.

Much like many video games that would come decades later, you had X number of lives per game. If you got hit at or below the waist you survived the attack, but above the waist, you were dead. My Mom gave us some strips of fabric so we could keep track of how many lives you lost.

You had to take five strips of your teams color and tuck them under your belt. If you were killed, you had to give up a strip to whoever killed you. If you were hit at below your beltline, you had to sit out for for a few minutes, because you were just "wounded" and you got to keep your strip because you were not killed. To say the very least, we went through a lot of balloons and food coloring...

In winter, our favorite way to pass time was building snow forts and having snowball fights. Sometimes we would get daring and attack trains as they passed through town.

Wow!!! sounds like a lot of fun. Made up games are the best. I always enjoyed collaborating with my friends, for new game ideas. Some were bombs, that we only played once, some lasted a bit longer, all were tried.

 

[Tony Page]

I grew up in a tiny mid-western town, they called it a village actually, and in spite of having a very middle class upbringing, I absolutely hated it. The streets were all dirt roads except for two, a county highway that went through town, and one that passed by on the north end of town was a state highway. It was pretty much farm country.

The town was surrounded on all sides by what seemed to be never ending corn fields. Talk about boring. But in all fairness, I had five friends and we were always using those corn fields for our entertainment.

My Dad was in the military and drew us a map of the town and surrounding fields, divided into "sectors", and we drew names and sectors out of a hat, three guys to a team. We0 used it when we played what was basically a primitive "Capture the Flag" version of Paintball, using water balloons filled with water dyed with food coloring.

Sometimes other kids we knew joined our games, and if there was an odd number of people, instead of "Capture the Flag" we played "Capture the Fugitives", in a Bonnie and Clyde Gang scenario. We would set up teams to chase the fugitives and however many people there were determined how many people were on each team.

We tried to keep it even, so that there were the same number of people on each team of cops and the fugitives. The fugitives always got the odd number, whether it was more or less people that the rest of the teams.

It was "Mom Approved" because the food coloring would either wash out or if we used too much of it, or it would make dyed t-shirts that looked pretty cool. Sadly, the colors faded away rather quickly. They rarely lasted longer than summer before turning back to the typical dingy off-white like most white t-shirts you often see in farm country.

The food coloring would also do no harm to the farmer's crops. My Dad told us it would take more than food coloring to make corn grow in colors other than yellow. We had no idea what he was talking about and took his word for it.

Much like many video games that would come decades later, you had X number of lives per game. If you got hit at or below the waist you survived the attack, but above the waist, you were dead. My Mom gave us some strips of fabric so we could keep track of how many lives you lost.

You had to take five strips of your teams color and tuck them under your belt. If you were killed, you had to give up a strip to whoever killed you. If you were hit at below your beltline, you had to sit out for for a few minutes, because you were just "wounded" and you got to keep your strip because you were not killed. To say the very least, we went through a lot of balloons and food coloring...

In winter, our favorite way to pass time was building snow forts and having snowball fights. Sometimes we would get daring and attack trains as they passed through town.

The water balloons with food die was a great idea.
The closest I can think of what we did that was similar happened around halloween. We used to fill an old sock with baking flour, then hide in a doorway or behind a parked car, until our target walk by then bombard him or her with our homemade grenade.
The flour marks on there clothing could be dusted off.

 

[Sheryl]

I'm trying to remember what we did as children. We lived on a farm so there was work. One clear memory is when my older brothers took Daddy's plow lines and made a swing on a high limb in a big old hickory tree. My brother would swing me so high that I could look down and see the housetop. It was almost like flying.

 

[Tony Page]

I'm trying to remember what we did as children. We lived on a farm so there was work. One clear memory is when my older brothers took Daddy's plow lines and made a swing on a high limb in a big old hickory tree. My brother would swing me so high that I could look down and see the housetop. It was almost like flying.

I'm glad you held on, you could have wound up on the roof.
I played a lot, but I also worked. I helped my grandmother whenever there was coal to be shoveled to the coal bin, same for wood. Ran grocery errands, washed the sidewalk, shoveled snow. I also helped my uncles. I kept busy.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I'm trying to remember what we did as children. We lived on a farm so there was work. One clear memory is when my older brothers took Daddy's plow lines and made a swing on a high limb in a big old hickory tree. My brother would swing me so high that I could look down and see the housetop. It was almost like flying.

My goodness Sheryl, that was high! We had tree huts high up in the trees. And swings that sometimes the rope broke, glad they weren't high as yours, lol.

 

[Tony Page]

Wonderful memories, I like the photo It has a "feel" to it. Bonzo is beautiful, and looks like a good companion.
We also played Cowboys and Indians as well as cops and robbers, Especially after Christmas, if we got a cap gun or rifle, if not a hand with a pointed finger or a stick would do.

 

[Tony Page]

I remember the days when growing up, in the summer we look forward to the ice cream truck stopping on our street. The Good Humor and Bungalow Bar trucks made daily stops, and they stopped in the same spot . I and my friends would run to our parents for money, most times they give me a little extra to buy for my friends.

Stopping by maybe once a month during the summer was an amusement park type ride. It was on the back of a truck and was either a swing type ride or a mini whip. These rides always created excitement on our street. Many parents would come watch their kids enjoying themselves on the ride. Their was always a line of kids to get on the ride. I remember running to get money from my parents for the ride and trying to get back outside to be one of the first ones on it. Waiting on that line was torture. After getting off the ride, my friends and I would laugh about the experience, banging into each other, or if one of us fell. It was fun.

There was a hot dog wagon where Grand Street and Metropolitan Avenue split. It was right at the fork in the road. My father would take me and my brother there for the best hot dogs around my area. They were thicker, tasty, juicy, and snapped when you bit into them. After Downing one of these, my father would always ask, "Do you want another one", of course, the answer was always "uh-huh." I wish a hot dog that tastes like that today.

We also had I fellow with a push cart selling potato knishes. I can still taste them. He would visit my street maybe every two weeks and of course I always had to have 1 or 2 of them. He would ask, "Do you want mustard?" "naw," "How about salt? " "yea." The potato and the crust were just delicious. Never had these again once we left Brooklyn. They were not available in the grocery store.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I never heard of potato knishes so I looked them up. We used to that all the time, but my Mom called them "Tater Bread"... I guess it's all about who's making them and where they grew up. But call them whatever you like, they are quite good...

 

[Nancy Hart]

I lived in Brooklyn until after I graduated high school, and then my family moved to Long Island. Growing up in Brooklyn in the 50s, I was never bored between my friends and family there was always something going on.

I spent a lot of time on the streets playing all sorts of games, remember back then we had no electronics, or internet. When I came "downstairs" (we lived on the second floor) and met my friends, the first question we asked was, "What do you want to do or what do you want to play?"

Some toys had seasons when they were popular, they were the "in" thing to play with, like tops, marbles, and pea shooters. At Easter time, it was paddle ball, bubbles (both soap & plastic), and jump rope.

Many times, we'd say let's go to a movie. Sometimes, one of us couldn't get the quarter from our parents, we all would chip in, if we could. There were two movies by us we called the "dumps", for a quarter you spent at lease 6 hours in the theater and never saw the same thing twice. A usual outing would consist of 3 "B" movies, cartoons, chapters (serials), 3 stooges, or other short comedies.
Of course, sometimes we didn't have enough money for all of us to go to the movies.We never would leave a friend behind. Instead, we'd play a street game.

Some Street games didn't require anything special to play. We had a large assortment of games we could play like Johnny on the pony, tag, box tag, coco-levio, scully (needed a piece of chalk), or leap frog.

If we could dig up or buy a Spalding ball, there was a whole bunch of games we could play, like hand ball, stoop ball, slap ball, stick ball, box ball, night ball or if you could find a decent empty can there was kick the can.

One of my favorite games was punch ball. It required a tennis ball, that was wrapped in paper and set afire. It had to be burned just enough to get the fuzz off. It would be a light brown color when done. This game was played on the street and was similar to baseball, except there was no pitcher, you hit the ball with your hand. You could slap or punch the ball. A ball that landed on the sidewalk was an automatic out. Some of us could hit the ball more than 2 sewers. Some could slap the ball with a downward motion, so it would spin, causing it to curve in flight. I've seen some players curve the ball around a light pole.

I could go on there was so much more we flipped for baseball cards, build scooters out of crates, traded comic books, collected cardboard to make a few pennies selling it. Most importantly it was friends playing together, with the bare minimum, not some expensive Nintendo or Xbox.

I have no clue how we learned to play all these different games except it had to be handed down from the older kids. Wherever they came from I enjoyed playing them.

Tony, I envy you growing up in Brooklyn. It must have been only a short bus or subway ride to anything you wanted to do. I visited NYC ( Manhattan) twice, both times with others who knew their way around. Eating out was surprisingly inexpensive at that time, if you knew where to go.

Did your parents let you ride the bus or subways alone when you were young? I assume you walked to school?

 

[Tony Page]

Tony, I envy you growing up in Brooklyn. It must have been only a short bus or subway ride to anything you wanted to do. I visited NYC ( Manhattan) twice, both times with others who knew their way around. Eating out was surprisingly inexpensive at that time, if you knew where to go.

Did your parents let you ride the bus or subways alone when you were young? I assume you walked to school?

Yes, I was allowed to ride the Subway. Or get on a bus alone when I was About twelve years old.

I walked both to elementary school and high school most days. With elementary school, I was only about half a mile away, So I walk it every day no matter the weather. High School was about 1 1/2 miles, I walk It unless the weather was bad. We were giving a free bus pass to use when ever we wanted.

The only time I used the subway was to go into NYC and latter after I graduated to get to work and night school. I used the bus to reach some of the baseball fields where I played ball. I did a lot of walking. Within walking distance, was library, stores, movies, parks, and eating places.

 

[Axel Slingerland]

I've only been to Manhattan twice, both times with my Dad when he was a truck driver. Once when I was 12, and again when I was 15. He took me to see The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East, and I was so impressed with that show that I've been a Blues Rocker ever since. If you know their later release of their album "At Fillmore East" called the "The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings", I now know that I was at the one show that "Stormy Monday" was played on March 13th, 1971. That's how I remember the date. The way they played that song with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts guitar solos is what turned me into a Blues Rocker.

This is the original recording with Thom Doucette playing the Blues Harp. His solo was cut from the "At Fillmore East" album.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I've only been to Manhattan twice, both times with my Dad when he was a truck driver. Once when I was 12, and again when I was 15. He took me to see The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East, and I was so impressed with that show that I've been a Blues Rocker ever since. If you know their later release of their album "At Fillmore East" called the "The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings", I now know that I was at the one show that "Stormy Monday" was played on March 13th, 1971. That's how I remember the date. The way they played that song with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts guitar solos is what turned me into a Blues Rocker.

This is the original recording with Thom Doucette playing the Blues Harp. His solo was cut from the "At Fillmore East" album.

Alman Brothers were also one of my favorite bands. First time I saw them was in Atlanta at Ther Georgia jam Alman Brothers were the leading band, Marshall Tucker, ZZ Tops, and 3 others top bands.
Greg came out on the stage and fainted from drug OD right off. But the other bands put on a great show. I have seen Alman Brothers many times, a couple times just Greg in clubs in Jax,Fl. Atlanta. Saw him and Dickie reunite at the Jacksonville Landing, Dickie just walked out on the stage and surprised Greg, they just stared at each other a couple minutes then went on with the show.
Atlanta always had great musician shows.

 

[Marie Mallory]

I've only been to Manhattan twice, both times with my Dad when he was a truck driver. Once when I was 12, and again when I was 15. He took me to see The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East, and I was so impressed with that show that I've been a Blues Rocker ever since. If you know their later release of their album "At Fillmore East" called the "The 1971 Fillmore East Recordings", I now know that I was at the one show that "Stormy Monday" was played on March 13th, 1971. That's how I remember the date. The way they played that song with Duane Allman and Dickey Betts guitar solos is what turned me into a Blues Rocker.

This is the original recording with Thom Doucette playing the Blues Harp. His solo was cut from the "At Fillmore East" album.

Axel my hubby is a good guitar player and singer, likes ZZ Tops and most rock bands some country. He was playing some today.

 

[Tony Page]

Yesterday, I had an urge for a Clark Bar, one of my favorite candies going back to the fifties. I started thinking about all the popular candies back then. Can you believe we actually had candies we called Penny candies.
Here's a photo of some of the candies like Turkish Taffy, candy buttons, cigarette sticks, waxed bottles, see how many you can remember.

 

[Yvonne Smith]

Speaking of penny candy, @Tony Page , I remember that very well, too. My family had a small neighborhood grocery store, and there was a whole glass-covered candy counter in the store , with several shelves of candy. The top shelf was regular candy bars, most of which were a nickel, and the more expensive ones cost a dime.
Below that were two shelves of just loose candy, in little cellophane bags (like candy corn) or just loose in the boxes (like malt balls), and the kids could choose what they wanted and everything was just a penny.

Back in those days, the parents would send the kid to the store with money and a note, for some grocery item, or (more likely) a pack of cigarettes. So, if the pack of cigarettes was 20 cents, and the child had a quarter to pay for them, then they usually got to spend the 5 cents change on their penny candy, or a nickel candy bar.
I think my mom must have gotten tired of waiting while the little kids stood at the candy counter and stared as they tried to decide which candy pieces they wanted for their 5 pennies.

 

[Jacob Petersheim]

Yeah, we had penny candy as well. I don't recall any of it bagged though. You chose your items and they went into a small paper bag. We often "paid" by bringing in one or two pop bottles. Most of these were 2 cents, but the occasional bigger root beer bottle got you 5 cents back.