Spaldeen Dreams

If you're under 50, the title of this blog won't mean much to you. Let me enlighten you grasshopper.

Made from the rejected inner core of a tennis ball in 1949, the original pink-colored Spalding High-Bounce ball gave inner city kids a way to play street games like hit-the-penny, box ball, stoop-ball, punch-ball and most famously, stickball. Designed after baseball, stickball substituted Spalding High-Bounce balls for baseballs, broomsticks for bats and manholes and fire hydrants for bases. The ball was originally called "Spaldeen" by New Yorkers with neighborhood accents who pronounced Spalding as (spal-deen).

As a kid in Brooklyn, the Spaldeen was a big part of my childhood. My friends and I spent endless hours on Somers Street and Rockaway Avenue playing with this little pink ball while dreaming of becoming the next Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams. Any kid who could hit a spaldeen "two sewers" was among the first picked when we chose up sides. We played in the middle of the street and had to stop often to let the traffic pass. We used sewer covers for home plate and second base, and either chalked first and third bases in the asphalt, or used car fenders if the owners weren't around.

I guess those "Spaldeen Dreams" never came true for most of us, but along the way we were creating wonderful memories of growing up in Brooklyn during the 1950's. It was a special place full of energy and hope. One in seven Americans can trace their roots back to Brooklyn. And if you asked them, I’d bet not many would choose to trade their childhood on the streets of Brooklyn for any other place in the world.

This blog is my way of recalling those memories, and also for anyone who grew up in that place and time to share what they remember. As my generation moves up the seniority ladder, I think it's important to let others know about the things that helped shape us. I want my kids to know a little about what life was like then...what I was like.

Just click on any date at the upper right to see other posts about growing up in 1950's Brooklyn. I hope you'll add "Spaldeen Dreams" to your "Favorites" and stop by once in a while to check for new posts, or to enter a "Comment" on any existing post.

I find that although I get more forgetful with every passing year, I can remember things that happened fifty years ago with surpprising clarity. Friends I played with, family holiday gatherings, neighborhood stores, teachers, doctors, neighbors, all are part of a wonderful mosaic that was my childhood in Brooklyn, New York. Looking back, I can finally appreciate how much of my education took place on those streets. And now, as the Lone Ranger used to say, "Let us return to those thrilling days of yesteryear".

The Brooklyn Boys ride again.

CLICK ON DATES AT TOP RIGHT TO SEE OTHER "SPALDEEN DREAMS" POSTS.

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