Skelly, Skully, Whatever You Call It

Probably the top game to play in the playgrounds in Rochdale during its early days was skelly ...

Or was it skully?

I never found out the true name of the game, but I knew how to play it, and I played it so much that my middle finger cuticle on my right hand remains misshapen from it to this day.

You take a good bottlecap, fill it with crayons, leave it on the heater in your room, have the crayons melt, let it cool, take it outside, rub it so the bottom is flat, and you are ready to go!

The idea of the game is to move around the board to various numbered boxes until you get to the end.

In the meantime, you can knock your opponent's pieces out or move them to various spots on the board with a flick of your finger.

During the early days of Rochdale, this game, seemingly a variation of marbles, was all the rage.

I believe I read that it was actually created in the streets of Philadelphia, but the game kind of moved over here too, in different variations than the original.

My pockets were full of skully caps, and so many of the crayons my mother bought for us were melted down and used with these caps.

As we got older, the game started to wane in popularity, but back in 1964 to about 1969, just about every park in Rochdale had a skully board drawn into it using chalk.

The one in the building 9/12 playground was right at the entrance to the park from the back of building 9. You just walked into the park from that exit, turned left, and that is where it was.

Kids today would probably scoff at this game, but heck, it was better, and more socially involving, than playing video games all day.

Skully, skelly, whatever you want to call it, was just one of the now old-school park games we used to play in Rochdale, along with hopscotch, SPUD, and punchball.

We all have memories of those games, and I will bet those memories will come up pretty regularly among the conversations at the Reunion.

Time is moving fast, and you have just four days to get your payment in, so do it today!

And bring some skully caps; maybe an impromptu board can be drawn up, and we can get into that flick of the finger once again, for old times' sake.

Horseshoes, Nails and the Like ...

Rochdale Village was constructed on the site of the old Jamaica Race Track, and various buildings had to be razed for the residential project to be built.

But as I remember it, in the early days of development, one could always find remnants of the old race track here and there.

I distinctly remember finding old horseshoes and lots of nails out and about during those days.

One day, my friend Ira and I decided that we were going to build a tree house, and we took what tools we had, some wood, and marched over to the deep end of Rochdale, somewhere near where I.S. 72 eventually was built.

In our seven year old minds, we figured that a tree house was a necessity in the wilds of Rochdale, I guess, and where better to put it than quite a ways away from where we lived in Building 9?

Anyway, we marched over there and started to put up this thing.

One thing led to another, and whatever we constructed fell down, and for me personally, that was the end of my building career, as I learned at an early age that I was not very handy.

But I do remember one other thing about this experience.

We were both wearing sneakers, and Ira stepped on a nail that had to be a couple of inches long that was buried in the ground. It was rusted, and I think that is when our little project stopped.

It punctured his sneaker, went into his heel, I believe, and he had to go right to the doctor to see if he was OK or if a tetanus shot was needed.

Funny how I remember this, but I do, and I don't think I ever ventured over to that part of the development again until I.S. 72 was built.

Flash forward to today, and we are in something of a horse race.

There are only five days left to send in your check for the Reunion.

Don't make this into a photo finish--make it into a Win, or at least a Place and Show.

You don't want to finish out of the money, so to speak, so send in your payment now!

I will bet that it is a decision you will not regret!

Music

During our time in Rochdale in the mid 1960s through at least the mid 1970s, music permeated our neighborhood.

You could hear everything from pop, rock, soul, jazz and classical music from one corner of the development to the other, and like today's kids with their iPods, we had our own music devices.

Who can forget our home Hi-Fi systems, which pretty much consisted of a turntable and speakers? Sure, pretty primitive by today's standards, but back then, this type of system came in all shapes and sizes, and was even portable.

My family had one, and we moved everything from the foyer, where the system was normally kept, to our rooms when we listened to our records, 45s and LPs on a spindle that would play one on top of the other.

And for even more portable music, we all had transistor radios of all shapes and sizes.

That plays into one of my favorite memories of Rochdale, one that I will never forget.

Otis Redding was on the verge of becoming a huge star, crossing over from black radio to AM Top 40 with numerous songs like "Try a Little Tenderness.

He was about ready to become huge when he died in a plane crash in December 1967.

His record label rushed out "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay" to honor his death, and I remember that it shot up to the top of the charts, eventually reaching No. 1.

And in mid-December, I did my usual bicycle riding from one mall to the other to buy comic books.

Incredibly, from one corner of Rochdale to the other, kids had their transistor radios out, and seemingly all you heard, from one end of the community to the other, was "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay."

It was an incredible memory, one that showed the true power of the music we listened to.

Whether it was from A--the Animals--to Z--the Zombies--music was everywhere in the old neighborhood, and the music that made our lives during those years will be heard at the Reunion.

If you have any suggestions, please note them. They will all be presented to the committee, who will, in turn, probably make up a master list of tunes to the DJ.

Hopefully, you will hear your favorites.

I have mine, and I hope that the DJ plays them too.

Become An Official Attendee Now!

Remember those kid-oriented clubs we used to belong to, the ones that asked us for a nominal amount and we would be a member forever?

A lot of those "clubs' were linked to comic books and TV shows that we watched.

Fast forward to 2013, and you are also being asked to join an exclusive club, one that you already belong to.

Yes, you are being asked to join the list of official attendees to the Rochdale Village Reconnection Reunion, being held on Oct 5.

And although the "dues" aren't as cheap as those clubs on long ago charged, the benefits are just as enormous.

You can meet up with people you haven't seen in ages.

You can have a nice meal.

You can have somewhere to go on a Saturday night.

You can't beat that, can you?

All kidding aside, time is running out for you to get your checks in.

The deadline is September 15, just a few days away.

You already belong to the club; now is the time to get those "dues" in!

The Fountains

Do you remember the two fountains that ran in Rochdale from 1964 to about 1969 or 1970?

They spouted plumes of water, cascaded by lights, and they stood as probably the centerpieces of the development during the time that they worked.

If I remember correctly, one was between sections two and three, and the other one was by the Community Center.

(I do not have a photo of the old fountains, and I do not even have anything that approximates those fountains. Does anyone have a photo that they would like to share? I will give you full credit if you send one to me at l_lapka@yahoo.com, and it might be one that we add to our picture collection for the Reunion.)

I remember that when we played ball in the Building 9/12 playground, on a windy day, we could be cooled down by light feeling of water on our skin, very light, barely touching us, but coming from the fountains.

The fountains also became a major hangout place for teens, and during the summer, hordes of young people used to sit and chat and smoke and just have fun around the fountains.

I never really hung out at the fountain--my hangout place was the aforementioned Building 9/12 playground--but I knew many people that did, mainly kids who were three and four years older than I was.

Did anyone actually ever go into the fountain, or at least put their feet in?

I seem to remember that I did, but I do not remember the circumstances. I didn't go in for a long time, but yes, I was one of those people who did, and I seem to remember feeling coins at my feet, but I won't swear to that.

I guess plenty of people made wishes at those fountains, and I hope those wishes came true.

Today, the last I heard, for several years the fountain area has been home to satellite dishes, but maybe somebody can confirm that for me.

I just remember that when they were finally turned off for good--I think it had to do with a New York City water crisis in the late 1960s or early 1970s--it was the clear signal that things were changing in our neighborhood.

I am sure that there will be plenty of talk about the fountains at the Reunion. Remember, the cutoff date for payments is September 15, so get your checks in now!

They have been coming in like plumes of water at this point in time, and you don't want to miss out on the event of the year, so don't miss out!

Pictures Wanted

We are looking for any and all photos having to do with growing up in Rochdale. Any photos that you might have that might look well in a presentation at the Reunion would be appreciated. 

Simply scan the photos and send them to l_lapka@yahoo.com, and please, Rochdale-related photos only.

Some of the photos that have turned up at this site--and other Rochdale sites--will be part of this presentation, but we are looking for "new" ones too.

Don't hesitate--please send the photos to that email address.

Siblings

I was the first-born in my family in April 1957, and after my arrival, my parents wisely waited some time before having child No. 2, my sister, who was born the day after Christmas in 1959.

I was told I was a real-life "Dennis the Menace" when I was little in those pre-Rochdale years, and I guess my mother, in particular, did not want two holy terrors in the house back to back.

Anyway, my sister and I shared a room in Kew Gardens Hills, and when we moved to our two-bedroom apartment in Rochdale, we continued to share a room during our seven years there, as we went from little kids to teens.

It is never easy sharing a room with a sibling, and it is even more difficult when you share a room with a sibling of the opposite sex.

The line of demarcation is very, very clear, and it certainly was in our room.

My parents put up a divider in the middle of the room, and that split the room roughly in half.

I had the part of the room near the door, my sister had the other half.

We had our beds lined up the same way on both sides of the room, but that is pretty much where the similarities ended.

I had a typical boys room, with pictures all of my sports heroes--Yankees and Knicks--all over the door and on my walls.

I remember that when the Knicks won their first championship in 1970, I stapled caricatures which I bought of each member of the team on my door, and at one point, stapled my hand to the door.

Don't ask.

I had a TV by the window, an old Zenith black and white TV, my comic books were kept on shelves right by the door, and I had my desk pretty much in the middle of my side of the room next to my dresser.

But if you crossed the line of demarcation, you were in my sister's side of the room.

And you knew it wasn't "Boys Town" anymore.

My sister had pictures of her music and TV idols all over her walls, culled from magazines like Tiger Beat. Early on, it was Davy Jones, but soon after, David Cassidy was all over every inch of her walls.

She also had a desk and a dresser, but David Cassidy looked down on every inch of that room.

However, when she got a little older, I was barred from the room in the morning, because even though David Cassidy could look down from the walls, my sister needed her "privacy" as she was maturing, so I would get dressed for my daily activities in my parents' room.

Looking back, the great thing about sharing a room with your opposite sex sibling is that there is a constant stream of opposite sex friends constantly making calls to whatever side of the room you aren't on, but alas, I was too young to take advantage of that, and to a certain extent, my sister was too, although she was much more savvy in that regard than I was.

And sharing a room for all those years kind of brought us closer together, although she probably didn't think that when, on occasion, I stood behind the curtain in the room and scared her when she was trying to go to sleep.

Hey, what's a big brother for?

I don't know if my sister is coming to the Reunion, but I do know there will be plenty of siblings there, and the shared experiences these siblings have will probably make mine pale by comparison.

Don't forget, the cutoff date is September 15, and brother (or sister), you won't regret being there!