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Bronx Kids Games

When the words "Bronx" and "games" occur together in a sentence, they conjure images of a past that remains alive and strong in the hearts and minds of those who grew up experiencing the special charms of this dense, urban sub-city, one of the five boroughs of New York City and the only one that lies entirely on the mainland.

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- Hopscotch is a wonderful, old fashioned street game.
  
  Street games were commonplace in the Bronx during the post-war period of the 1950's. Games still fondly recalled include hide-and-seek, Johnny-on-the-pony, stickball, boxball, red light-green light, ace-queen-king, hopscotch -- and skully, a big favorite. Online discussion boards have floated the idea of reviving skully and restoring it to the popularity of its heyday.
Skully
- Bottlecaps were commonly used as game pieces.
  
  Skully is a game intended for two to six players. Using your fingers like a pool stick, you shoot your play piece, usually a bottle cap or similar device, through a course constructed of 13 numbered boxes -- with 13 being the middle box, or skull. Constructing a course of chalk on the sidewalk, the objective is to work your way to the middle of the course and back to the beginning. If you make it into the next square, you're allowed another turn, and if you happen to knock an opponent's piece, you may also advance a space. Once you make it to the middle, or final square, you move backward to the beginning -- in hopes of obliterating all the other pieces along the way, thus being the first to return, and the winner.
Hey, Batter Batter
- Stickball, one of the best-known urban sports, requires a group of kids, a broomstick, a rubber ball and a street. Stickball is a truncated form of the game of baseball in which distances between manhole covers help determine the values of safely hit balls, and parked cars often serve as bases. This Bronx kids game is often portrayed in movies set in that era.
Bouncing Balls
- Sidewalks were used as game courts.
  
  Boxball is a simple game that requires only two people, a sidewalk and a little, pink, rubber Spalding ball, which everyone called a "Spaldeen." The designated squares of a sidewalk are transformed into a mini-court for a challenging game that resembles ping-pong -- with no paddles. Players hit the ball back and forth into each other's squares on one bounce. A player gets a point when his opponent either misses the ball, lets it bounce more than once before hitting it, or hits it outside the opponent's square. The game ends when someone scores 21 points.
Games for Girls
- Jumping rope is a classic pastime.
  
  Girls had their own special Bronx street games as well. They played jacks, jump rope, clapping rhymes, hopscotch and more. Hopscotch dates to the early Roman Empire, when the courts were more 100 feet long. Today, as in the Bronx, hopscotch courts vary in size but are usually at least 7 feet long. Regardless of length, the game rules are fairly standard. Prior to hopping along the course of squares, you toss a marker, usually a stone, onto a square which you then have to hop over -- until your return along the course, when you pick the marker up and proceed to the first square, completing your turn. These games are well established and are still commonly played by girls today.

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