Completely off topic… but had to do something fun and light and I was reading other people’s recollections of growing up in the 50 and 60’s…because have been trying to remember this game we played with bottle caps, or maybe it wasn’t a game, but it was something with bottle caps from soda…
so here is what I recall from growing up in Bayside, Queens, NYC we lived near Bell Boulevard and Union Turnpike and Springfield Boulevard in the Windsor Oaks apartments near to the Windsor Park apartments
local places: Pee Pond (Alley Pond Park), Kiddy City, Ice Skating at Roosevelt Field, Bowling Alley, Fresh Meadows, World’s Fairgrounds, Creedmoor (State mental hospital), Mays in Glen Oaks and Lake Success (Longyland) plus the pizza place, delis, candy stores, luncheonette, diners, five and dime (Woolworth’s) and the hamburger joint near Mays which brought food on Lionel trains
we not only had an assortment of ice cream trucks that came around from Good Humor to Mr Softie all with different sounds, but we also had Chow Chow Cup (Chinese food that came in an edible bowl. The bowl was made of a fried eggroll wrapper), Pizza, Knish Knosh and other foods
we had milk delivered to our apartment, it came in bottles
we also had donuts and cake delivered
we got our ice cream from cows from a farm my dad passed by called Gouz (rhymes with cows)
candy:
maryjanes
candy cigarettes
little bottles with sugar water colored
ootton candy
toasted marshmallows
rawhide (apricot) and licorice ropes
filled jelly candies from lower east side nyc
necco
pez
desserts/ice cream stores:
Carvel’s
Dunkin Donuts
Jahn’s ice cream parlor, free ice cream sundae on your birthday
charlotte russes (sponge cake topped with whipped cream)
we lived in what we called a court (yard) of garden apartments. we had lots of trees and grass behind the apartments and played a lot of different street games… including:
ringolevio
stoop ball
jacks
checkers
something with bottle caps
freeze
table hockey
monkey in the middle
softball
jump rope
card games like War, Spades, Hearts, Casino, 21, Poker, and Rummy
cowboys and indians
forts
king of the mountain/jungle
tag
ball games such as A my name is Alice and I come from Alabama and I make apples (with your spaldeen you bounce the ball and raise your leg over the ball every time the A (or B C D etc) is said, A Alice Alabama Apples
hopscotch
arm wrestling
sledding in winter
we used a hose to cool off…or went to Jones Beach or Far Rockaway
caught caterpillars and fire flies in jars
did not step on sidewalk cracks (it would break your mother’s back)
get dressed up for Halloween
mean boys (usually, sometimes girls) would put huge chunks of hard chalk inside socks and hit you with it
when we were bored inside on snow days :
we’d make phoney phone calls, call people we did not know up and ask if their refrigerator was running and hang up
listen to the radio and make dedications, ask for a particular song to be played for a particular person and hear our names on the radio
came home from school to watch and dance to:
American Bandstand
Soul Train (later)
we played in the playgrounds:
in the sandboxes
on the monkeybars
swings
slide
see-saw or teeter/totter
sang songs and made up songs:
Susie and Johnny sitting in a tree K I S S I N G
First Came Love Then Came Marriage
Then Came Susie with a Baby Carriage
we put on shows, circuses, sometimes to raise money
adults had BBQ’s and Mock Marriages where people would pretend to marry other people’s husbands/wives after they got tipsy drunk
the housewives were Yenta Center (where all the women would sit outside and gossip about everyone in the neighborhood)
played mah jongg
board games like Monolpoly, Chinese checkers
played with
hula hoops
pogo sticks
bubbles
collected and traded:
marbles
baseball cards
dolls
we were crafty:
made laniards
pot holders
crocheted baby items
braided chewing gum wrappers into necklaces
pop-it beads
cut out paper dolls
sea shells
imaginary games:
write down how we’d spend a million dollars when the Millionaire John Beresford Tipton came to our house
tea parties
watched TV shows:
Howdy Doody
Little Rascals
Bowery Boys
Lone Ranger
Sky King
Wagon Train
I Love Lucy
Milton Berle
Ed Sullivan
Lassie
Mickey Mouse Club
Capt. Kangaroo
cartoons (Rocky and Bullwinkle; The Jetsons)
Twilight Zone
Superman
Loretta Young
Merv Griffin
Dragnet
Roy Rogers
Donna Reed
George Burns and Gracie Allen
Beat the Clock
Hopalong Cassidy
Jack Benny
Truth or Consequences
Honeymooners
You Bet Your Life (Groucho Marx)
Kukla, Fran and Ollie
The Red Skelton Show
My Little Margie
Make Room for Daddy
Life of Riley
Ozzie and Harriet
Father Knows Best
Leave It to Beaver
The Real McCoys
Dobie Gillis
Adventures of Rin Tin Tin
Soupy Sales
I’ve Got a Secret
Topper
Dr Kildare
Ben Casey
Abbott and Costello
77 Sunset Strip
Three Stooges
Movies:
Old Shirley Temple movies
West Side Story
Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon beach movies
Elvis movies
Musicals: King and I, Sound of Music, Oklahoma
Ben Hur
Spartacus
The Time Machine
Songs:
Purple People Eater
Lion Sleeps Tonight
Louis, Louis
Duke of Earl
In the Still of the Night
Itsy Bitsy Yellow Polka Dot Bikini
You Don’t Own Me
Que Sera Sera whatever will be will be
Tears on My Pillow
A Teenager in Love
Hey Paula
Book of Love
Who Put the Bop in the Bop de Bop Rama Lama Ding Dong
Tell Laura I Love Her
You Belong To Me
Sherry
Peppermint Twist
Songs by: Lesley Gore, Dion and the Belmonts, Frankie and the 4 Seasons, Beatles, Supremes, Monkees, Dave Clark 5, Rascals, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Melanie, Roy Orbison, Johnny Mathis, Peter, Paul and Mary, 5th Dimension, Mamas and Papas, Herman’s Hermits, Paul Anka, and others
Dances:
Twist
Cha Cha
Monkey
Mashed Potatoes
Read comics:
Archie
Superman
Nancy Drew
we had:
rank out sessions (traded insults) your mother wears army boots;
gave people knucks (hit knuckles hard with baseball cards)
slam books (wrote who was most popular, best dresser, smartest person, etc in class)
cats (alley) who we named and took care of although we were not allowed to have pets in the garden apartments… my cat’s name was Ginger
Stumble It!
Have dog blog will travel 