Questions and Answers (Q&A) Forgotten Chicago Forum
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Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: March 23, 2015 12:05AM
How many of you remember the splits or stretch. You would throw your pocket knife and stick it in the ground and your opponent would stretch one foot to the knife and so fort until one of you couldn't stretch any further. How about pitching pennys, nickles, quarters to make some money to buy candy.
Crap games in the school yard and keeping an eye out for the nuns. Hide n seek. Roll over roll over let Johnny come over. Roulette or poker games. Or pool matches eight ball?
Crap games in the school yard and keeping an eye out for the nuns. Hide n seek. Roll over roll over let Johnny come over. Roulette or poker games. Or pool matches eight ball?
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
Tim
()
Date: April 28, 2015 10:43AM
With regard to pitting pennies, the best to pitch were the "lead" pennies struck during WW II. They were "dead" when they hit the concrete. What you know as stretch, I knew as "mumbley peg." I have no idea as to how to spell that, but I do recall someone getting stuck.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
rjmachon
()
Date: April 28, 2015 07:12PM
They were steel pennies Tim. I know that vending machines back then couldn't take them because they were magnetic. I believe they were produced between 1941 and 1944. I had some in my penny collection.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
thimmaker
()
Date: April 29, 2015 08:25PM
Funny how many kids carried a pocket knife around back then without many crimes being commited. Many of them in the top of your hightops? We called it Mumblety Peg and thats probably spelled wrong too.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
ljurets
()
Date: May 24, 2015 03:48PM
Haha I forgot about the stretch game with the knives--we did that as well. Pitching pennies, playing some kind of marble game where we dug a small hole in the dirt and rolled the marbles--I can't remember if we aimed for the hole, or tried to knock our opponents' marbles into it.
We also pitched pennies, played Rover Red Rover...did anyone play Ring Relivio 1-2-3? I'm not sure if that was particular to our block.
24th & South Harding, 1960s/1970s.
We also pitched pennies, played Rover Red Rover...did anyone play Ring Relivio 1-2-3? I'm not sure if that was particular to our block.
24th & South Harding, 1960s/1970s.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
zorchvalve
()
Date: May 24, 2015 04:07PM
RJ, I think that the steel pennies were only distributed in 1943. As I remember, someone told me that they made about a half dozen of the '43 pennies in copper.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: May 24, 2015 07:46PM
How about YoYo contests in front of the drug store/soda fountain or hobby shop.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
Cragin Spring
()
Date: May 27, 2015 12:44PM
We use to play Pinners behind the school. Throw a rubber ball at a high wall behind the school and others tried to catch it on a fly.If you caught the ball on a fly it would be one out.If caught on one bounce the thrower would get a single etc..
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: May 27, 2015 11:40PM
I remember that game. We played fast pitch almost the same way except you had a batter, against the Jewel Food Store wall.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
Mornac
()
Date: May 28, 2015 12:43AM
Cragin Spring Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> We use to play Pinners behind the school. Throw a
> rubber ball at a high wall behind the school and
> others tried to catch it on a fly.If you caught
> the ball on a fly it would be one out.If caught on
> one bounce the thrower would get a single etc..
--I could never figure out why, what everyone else called "pinners" was referred to as "ledge" in our neighborhood. Did anyone else here call it "ledge"? If so, where did you live?
-------------------------------------------------------
> We use to play Pinners behind the school. Throw a
> rubber ball at a high wall behind the school and
> others tried to catch it on a fly.If you caught
> the ball on a fly it would be one out.If caught on
> one bounce the thrower would get a single etc..
--I could never figure out why, what everyone else called "pinners" was referred to as "ledge" in our neighborhood. Did anyone else here call it "ledge"? If so, where did you live?
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
rjmachon
()
Date: June 03, 2015 07:07PM
We called it "Pinners" in Logan Square around 1966.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
mogee
()
Date: July 25, 2015 11:21PM
We use to call it just three outs on a fly.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
the_mogra
()
Date: July 27, 2015 11:08AM
we called it 'pinners' (Humboldt park neighborhood) in the '60s, but key to throwing the ball against a wall is there also had to be a 'ledge', or ridge of some kind on that wall to aim the ball at. it had the effect of making results uniform. maybe that's where the alternate 'ledge' name originates.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
rjmachon
()
Date: July 28, 2015 07:14PM
I use to play pinners at Darwin School in Logan Square in the 60"s!
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
southwestside83rd
()
Date: August 08, 2015 01:16AM
we got the whole gang to play "brother fox what time is it" up and down the block even until dark. good times! every kid on the block was there! from age four to fourteen! Good times!
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: September 08, 2015 11:46PM
What was Brother fox what time is it? I know we played 'Your iT" not sure about Brother Fox.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
rjmachon
()
Date: September 19, 2015 10:20PM
I never heard of this either, "brother fox what time is it". Nothing in the search engines on this as well.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: September 21, 2015 12:02AM
Where on the southside?
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
Mornac
()
Date: September 21, 2015 06:52PM
SWEDE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>How about pitching
> pennys, nickles, quarters to make some money to
> buy candy.
--When I delivered the Daily News in the afternoons, we used to pitch pennies out behind the news agency while we waited for the truck with the final edition ('red streak') to arrive from downtown. We were a bit wary of cops who made a big deal out if things like that when the took place in front of schools (How times have changed!) but they cut us some slack since we were next to where we worked and it was usually only pennies. If it got up to nickles or dimes we were a bit more cautious. Once we had quarters going (happened sometimes on pay day), and a cop rolled by and told us that if he caught us doing it again there would be consequences to pay. Our immediate response was that we "weren't playing for keeps". He must have heard that a million times because he told us that, since coins technically belonged to the government, he'd cite us for 'defacing public property'. We looked at each other speechless as he drove away - no doubt grinning from ear to ear.
-------------------------------------------------------
>How about pitching
> pennys, nickles, quarters to make some money to
> buy candy.
--When I delivered the Daily News in the afternoons, we used to pitch pennies out behind the news agency while we waited for the truck with the final edition ('red streak') to arrive from downtown. We were a bit wary of cops who made a big deal out if things like that when the took place in front of schools (How times have changed!) but they cut us some slack since we were next to where we worked and it was usually only pennies. If it got up to nickles or dimes we were a bit more cautious. Once we had quarters going (happened sometimes on pay day), and a cop rolled by and told us that if he caught us doing it again there would be consequences to pay. Our immediate response was that we "weren't playing for keeps". He must have heard that a million times because he told us that, since coins technically belonged to the government, he'd cite us for 'defacing public property'. We looked at each other speechless as he drove away - no doubt grinning from ear to ear.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: September 22, 2015 12:33AM
Pitching was never a problem for us, however, kneeling down playing craps was always suspecious to the cops especially when your a teenager.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2015 11:24PM by SWEDE.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2015 11:24PM by SWEDE.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: September 28, 2015 11:33PM
How about jumping house roofs? It wasn't a game, however, it was a fun thing to do. When we moved to 55th and Komensky (Crawford) they started to build a entire neighborhood of single story bungalows. We were 15 year old at the time.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
rjmachon
()
Date: September 29, 2015 02:29PM
We just did the garage roofs Swede. LOL
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: September 30, 2015 12:08AM
We did the garage roofs when we lived in the Back of the Yards, not many bungalows there, however, we became more daring when we got older. Ha! Ha!
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: January 02, 2016 12:28AM
Another game that we played during the football season was Electric Football table game. I still have that one and Electric Baseball. They were both popular in the 50's 60's
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
Jeff_Weiner
()
Date: January 02, 2016 03:46AM
SWEDE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another game that we played during the football
> season was Electric Football table game. I still
> have that one and Electric Baseball. They were
> both popular in the 50's 60's
The one with the buzzer? How exactly did that work?
-------------------------------------------------------
> Another game that we played during the football
> season was Electric Football table game. I still
> have that one and Electric Baseball. They were
> both popular in the 50's 60's
The one with the buzzer? How exactly did that work?
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: January 02, 2016 11:35PM
Both games had vibrators that would move the players down the field until the defensvie player would touch the player with the football. The baseball game would move the player to each base depending on how far the ball was hit and where.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
SWEDE
()
Date: January 10, 2016 12:03PM
How about the table game basketball played with a small ping pong ball shot from a spring loaded hole that you would push when the ball was in the hole. It depended on how much force you pushed.
Re: Games from the 50's
Posted by:
mikbasile
()
Date: January 13, 2016 12:27AM
Anybody like to play table hockey? nothing fancy, just the old game you would play on your kitchen table. Five players and a goilie. This game was popular in the sixties, but I have checked back as far as the forties. The players were controled by metal rods under the deck,movement was limited,but once you polished up your skill you were ready to take on any challenger.
