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GaMes PeoPle PlayeD
steps are not; Red Rover Come Over; Ringolevio; and Capture the Flag, each of the last two of which was adopted as we got older, and then shed as we got older yet. Ringolevio and Capture the Flag were games that were most likely to be played in camp or in the P.S. 193 schoolyard. One distinctly New York City playground game that was played by sub- teenagers and teenagers was Johnny-on-the-Pony, which was quite physical and potentially dangerous. I’m happy to say, and my mother was happy to know, that, having watched the game when I was nine or ten, I decided never to play it. (See Appendix B for material relating to Spud, Cowboys and Indians, cap pistols, Red Rover, Ringolevio, Cap- ture the Flag, and Johnny-on-the-Pony.)
As far as I was concerned, the best games were those that involved balls or baseball cards. In addition to selling its delicious egg creams and dangerous valentines, Chodosh’s sold what we called “spaldeens,” which were hard pink rubber balls that were made by Spalding and Company. They were slightly smaller than baseballs and, therefore, easier for a kid to grip. As I grew older, spaldeens, which had a distinctly sweet aroma when they were new, became a vital part of my existence.
Spaldeens were always in demand for punchball, Hit the Penny, handball, Chinese handball, squash (definitely not “squash racquets”), just plain old catch, and other ball games that we played. The game that bore the most interesting name was salugi. Pronounced with a soft g, salugi was a group game of keep-away, usually involving someone’s spaldeen or other prized property. Another variant of keep-away, which involved only three players, was called, unsurprisingly, “Monkey-in- the-Middle.” The most indigenous game played with a spaldeen was stoopball, which was not really well suited to the far-too-busy location of 1771 Ocean Avenue. I do not believe that stoopball was played in the suburbs. (See Appendix B for more on Chinese handball, squash, and salugi, and to learn why stoopball was better played at other houses.)
The most important game to be played with a spaldeen, however, was stickball, either the one-bounce variety, which involved the art of “flooking” the ball, or the no-bounce variety, which led to many a sore pitching arm but encouraged the development of the curveball and, in
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