Stick ball, kick ball, wiffle ball, half ball, step ball, wall ball, chink (another name for wall ball, wire ball, baseball (on our own field) football, etc. What else do you remember?

The best game we played was kickball on the corner of Pennway and Ruscomb St. We had 3 bases and a homeplate. It was perfect. To get a homerun you had to kick the ball into Philip Katzman's yard behing the hedges or all the way up the 50 hundred block of Pennway.The worst thing was when you were in the middle of a game and your mom called you in for dinner.Another game I loved but you used a stick instead of a ball was steal the bacon. We would play that game in the middle of the street where I lived.

Baby in the Air -I rmember the name but not the game.
There was also a basketball rim attached to a telephone poll for sometime near corner of Whitaker and F I believe.
While not a ball game but how about "shooting" baseball cards and "beeries" with soda bottle or beer caps.

I remember many baseball games at "The Field" Sometimes we only had 5 or 6 to a side.. right field foul unless you called it (like me)... Many a long summer day spent there...
Remember the old guy That grew tomatoes.. and wore baggy pants..
We had do overs, and self umpired each game...
What I would not give to play one more game....
sam

Baby-in-the-air: Don't remember it all but here goes: Each player had a number. We would "doggie out" to see who was first. That person would say "Baby in the air for number x" and throw the ball straight up. The person with the number x had to catch the ball. If he/she caught it on the fly they could throw it up again with the saying and a new number. If they caught it on a bounce(es) then once it was caught they said "freeze" and everyone had to stop where they were. Here's where it gets fuzzy for me. I think the person threw the ball at someone and if they hit them, they were "it". Or they could call someone and chase them and tag them.

I forgot all about the Baby in the Air game. I think someone called out "Baby in the air number 3" and that person who was assigned #3 would run out and catch the ball that was thrown up in the air. I think.

There for a time we had THREE football teams going! All with helmets and shoulder pads. I was on the Pennway Packers which lasted a season. We all had red sweatshirts. There was another team of smaller kids - wildcats? And there was a team of BIGGER kids with uniforms and numbers and everything. We scrimmaged with them once. Anyone remember that team's name or were on any of these teams?

OK so I just confirmed this with Ira Graffman, there was a street game we played called rays. If you were hit by the light of a car as it came down Pennway Street you were dead and therefore out of the game.

I remember kickball at Creighton for the girls and wire ball on Whitaker. You got your pimple balls at the candy store on F Street. Gary, I do remember playing beeries on a court painted in the alley way in front of the Schwartz back yard.
Does anybody remember seeing Skip and Marshall Linton throwing a football around on Whitaker? I think someone had painted in some yard markers. We all though Skip would be a big star QB at Olney!

I also remember kickball at Creighton, which was fun but always more fun on the corner of Pennway and Ruscombe. Trying to kick the ball onto Phil Katzman's lawn.
We were always drawing a beeries court in the driveway, behind someone's home or on the street. Remember "dead man's zone?" That was a square, rectangle or free for area around block 13 in the center. When you were up to 13, you had to get your bottle cap into 13 without landing in the dead zone or you would be sent back to #1, to start over. I soent hours dripping wax into my bottle caps to add weight. It also let the cap travel farther if it flipped over.
I do recall at some point seeing football lines drawn across Whitaker but that's all it is, a faint memory.

Reading all these comments about the games we played makes me realize how lucky we all were to grow up in one big playground. I never played rays but I would have loved that one.

I do not remember ever playing rays. Maybe that was a 50 hundred block of Pennway game that we did not play on the 49 hundred block?

Gary
As I recall it beeries was 1 to 15. You had to get your beerie into each numbered square with out overshooting it. After you got to 15 then you were a "dead man” and you could knock others out and they would then have to start over.

That is where the wax came in, the heaver your beerie the easier it was to knock others out. There were some people on Pennway that made there own fishing weights. If you hade a beerie ready they would fill it with lead for you then you really had something.

Remember getting pestered by "Crazy Dave"? What ever happened to him?

Remember those hot summer nights and hiding under cars for "Kick the Can"?

Ira,
I was on the Pennway Packer team. We played the Olney Eagles. Jay Jurove's Dad was the coach. They beat us. The following year I played for them.

Bob,

Yeah, that's where I remember you from, the Packers! We had fun that year, despite being wiped out by Jay and Co!

Yep...the Pennway Packers. I was on it too. Lasted one season. We got wiped up by another neighborhood team with better uniforms and deeper pockets. I remember going door to door soliciting money for the red sweatshirts we bought as our uniforms. Did we even have helmets? Al Ciavarella's dad was our coach I think. I remember we collected about thirty-some dollars for the sweatshirts. Lots of money in those days!

We met in the Ciavirella's garage after practice - Al (Sr) was indeed the coach. We all supplied our own helmets and shoulder pads the team, through the contributions bought our matching red jerseys.

I remember touch football games in the middle of Whitaker ave before they built the bridge.
Baseball on the lot. hitting homers into the train tracks and creek.
Step ball in front of the house.
And many many more great and innocent memories.

Some other games:

Chink
Wall Ball
Step Ball
Hose Ball
Half Ball

All we needed was a ball or even half a ball or a hose to cut up and a stick...no batteries required.

Lewis Rothstein 5161 Pennway.

"box ball" - you hit a ball with your fist - we played on the basketball court in the desert

Clara Barton side of the creek.

We played stickball with hose sections, stickball with either pimple ball halves or Pennsy Pinkie halves, chink, wall ball, wire ball, step ball, touch football, baseball. Never played basketball and still don't know how to make a lay up; you either learn it as a kid like a language, or you never get it.

Non-ball games include shooting baseball cards against a wall, buck buck, hide and seek, red rover.

I had forgotten Philip's name the last time I walked down Pennway St. with my dad. That corner was perfect for kickball because we had a manhole cover for each base and home plate. I doubt that there were many other streets with such a perfect setup.

I remember that we always played touch football on Pennway and that Bruce Katz was always the steady quarterback for both sides. He had that great arm and he was far bigger than I was so I wasn't going to argue.

Remember when someone's dad would go up on the row house roof and throw down 100 balls from up there. It was like heaven was raining athletic gear.

All of you great people stirred my memories of the best neighborhoods to grow up in. The games I remember are similar to those posted here. We played wiffleball, stepball, chink ( against any wall), wireball, baby in the air, football from tele to tele, beeries ( of course ) with liquid steel to shoot it anywhere, half ball, stickball,hardball at the lot, games at the dead end before the Whitaker bridge was built, played some football at the lot and join some team with Dave Jurove. kickball at pennway and ruscomb where we had 4 perfectly placed manholes for bases. Into my father's hedges for a homerun where I can hear him say " get off the lawn" unless it was me...lol.I remember that special spot in front of my house where there was a fire hydrant and nobody could park there so every truck from Rose's to Mister Softee would stop there. Just lucky I guess. Thanks for stirring my memory of the best times........Phil

We lost a dear friend today March 15, 2016 , Alan Cissorsky I have known Z for almost 60 years and his passing on is devastating. He was a true friend and a person with a good heart

He will be missed but not forgotten



David Fine