Spaulding Balls

[Eddie Acunzo]

Childhood memories : Who can relate to these memories of Spaulding balls and childhood? The feel of a spaulding ball slapped off a toughened palm for a "kill" shot in the handball courts; the look of a flattened spaulding flying through the air after being viciously "tipped" by a stickball; the smell of the rubber of a brand new spaulding; wrestling a sewer top off, then fishing lost balls back from a watery grave at the end of stranded wire hangers; curb ball with a new spaulding, pitching at the boxes drawn against the park wall in the softball field; and, what was it called, "Ace, King, Queen" against building walls?

[Don D]

Think about all of the different games you played with the "spaldeen" as we called it. It was rally a pain to carry around all day because you had to stuff it into one of your pockets for the day.

Games - Handball, boxball, slug(ace, king, queen etc), stickball (automatics or pitching), curbball, running bases, points or baseball off the edges cut into the apartment buildings, slapball, punchball and then several games like Spud or "I declare war on....". Remember the loser of some of these games we played got "moons up".

Any other games???

Don

[Les Sherwood]

Eddie
We were not as sophistcated as you hishing spauldeens out of sewers with a hanger. We climbed down the ladder and fished them out by hand like real men.
We u sed to play punch ball a lot and at times we had 8-10 on a side.
The older guys used to play stickball pitching on one bounce in the alley of 102 betting at times some real money.
I remember one guy hitting a spauldeen from the back of the alley over the old school yard,over the lunber yards( better known as the lots) and hitting the apartments on a fly and then bouncing back into the lots. At times there were a bit of hyperbole involved with some of purported feats of hitting a spauldeen. I swear on this one though.
If you believe this one I have a few more th at you might fall for.
Les

[Les Sherwood]

Eddie
We were not as sophistcated as you hishing spauldeens out of sewers with a hanger. We climbed down the ladder and fished them out by hand like real men.
We u sed to play punch ball a lot and at times we had 8-10 on a side.
The older guys used to play stickball pitching on one bounce in the alley of 102 betting at times some real money.
I remember one guy hitting a spauldeen from the back of the alley over the old school yard,over the lunber yards( better known as the lots) and hitting the apartments on a fly and then bouncing back into the lots. At times there were a bit of hyperbole involved with some of purported feats of hitting a spauldeen. I swear on this one though.
If you believe this one I have a few more th at you might fall for.
Les

[Eddie Acunzo]

Les and Don,

You are clearing some of the fuzziness from my cob-webbed brain and allowing some ancient memories to flood back in. It used to annoy the crap out of me if my son would say ''I'm bored, there's nothing to do." As long as there was a stick on the ground or a ball to be bounced, there were a million things to do outside!

Eddie

[marie-elena (ferracano) r]

Hello guys,
Just had to laugh about playing all sorts of games w/ spaldeens. Yes we did use a lot of imagination. Imay be a few years younger than you 2 fellows. But we all found something to keep us busy, growing up. we were never bored. I remember making "go-carts". using old rollerskates, broken baby carriage and/or shopping cart wheels. Mike & Maryann Butler's dad, helped us, many times. getting us prepared for our "big" race. Try flying down Gurlein Ave, from the top of Beach ave (1574 side) we crashed a few of the scooters. we built huts/forts in the lots. Next door to Mrs Redo. I know that some of you "older" guys, built pidgeon coops, in the "other" lot, down Beach Ave. My 2 oldest brothers, Pat & Junior (Vince) told me, about the building of the highway. That when they were young, they would walk down to the end of Beach ave & watch the workman build the highway. Does anyone remember when you could get on the Bronx river pkwy via the parking lot behind Noble ave? By the Phone Co garage. I learned to drive a car over there. I swear that there was a way to cut onto the pkwy. Or why did we always call that building "Noble Mansion"?
It wasn't a mansion, just a really large apt building. But with terraces. We all had "fire escapes".
WE never had time to be "bored", we had lots of freedom to run & play, any where we chose. Stay safe dear friends. Keep the memories flowing.