Yesterday Vs. Today - Sewer fishing

[spartacus53]

We've already discussed the difference between the games kids played in the 50's & 60's to the games kids play today. I'm about to take it one step further in highlighting the ingenuity we showed way back when. I remember playing ball all the time, whether it was stickball, off the wall, slug, off the point, or even punch ball; our most prized possession we had was the ball itself. Being a connoisseur of the finest balls around, we would always chose "Spaulding" For some reason, no other ball could match it's bounce and durability. There were a ton of imitators, but only one "pink monster".

There was never a doubt that Spaulding was king. Like anything on this planet, Spaulding did have one natural enemy... the dreaded sewer. One miss, or well placed shot would feed the sewer and that was something we couldn't afford. In the early 60's the Spaulding was $0.15 almost a whole weeks allowance back then.

When we lost out first ball, we needed to find a way to get it back. It was out of reach by hand and a stick wouldn't pick it up, so we looked to the old steel one piece hanger. We would simply unbraid the wire and close the hook portion to make a seat for the ball. It took skill to position that piece under the ball and gently return it to the surface. I can remember the feeling of my face pressing against the wholes in the sewer to better see what I was doing like it was yesterday. I also remember the smell too, not pleasant. Sometimes recovery was a matter of seconds to a minute, other times you had to really work around and move garbage if it became trapped, or lodged.

The difference you ask. The difference is back then we knew the value of something, whereas today's kids for the most part would run to the store and spend a few dollars for a new ball, and never even think of retrieving the original ball.

Kids, won Sewer, nothing

 

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[Dano Sverige]

" Being a connoisseur of the finest balls around..." - erm,you may want to amend that part mate!

We used to do the exact same things in the UK. Ball losing kids of the sixties and seventies unite!
The other main enemy of the ball..and many other things too...was the rain gutters around the roofs of houses. Being the local daredevil (for "daredevil" read - idiot.) I spent many precarious times on rickety drainpipes a hundred miles up in the air grabbing wayward balls and any other goodie that happened to be up there!

 

[TreasurdiggrNY]

Great post, we called it a "spaldine" growing up in Brooklyn and you never went without one. You could get it back from the sewer but every block had that one guy, you know the guy. The one who kept your ball if it went in his yard grrrrr

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[spartacus53]

Great post, we called it a "spaldine" growing up in Brooklyn and you never went without one. You could get it back from the sewer but every block had that one guy, you know the guy. The one who kept your ball if it went in his yard grrrrr

​

" Being a connoisseur of the finest balls around..." - erm,you may want to amend that part mate!

Thank you guys, and Dano I see what you mean

Unfortunately, I typed this late last night on little sleep and that word was the best to use.. TreasurdiggrNY can vouch for that I don't know the most popular ball in the UK, but in the US Spaldine was really #1, there was not a ball around that could match it. That ball was literally a rocket off of a broom handle I was hoping that it would jar some good memories of times gone past and how we worshiped the little we had.

Another thing you may not know Dano, but stickball was, and still is illegal to play in the streets of NY today!!! Every other day the police would come by and grab all the broom handles and toss them in their trunk. It didn't take us too long to learn how to beat the system either as a kid. After we had our gear (broomsticks) confiscated, we learn to ditch really quick, tossing them under cars and stuck them in any nearby bushes. The police would stop when they saw a group of kids milling around the home plate sewer cover and another group of kids stung along the street standing around with baseball mitts on. They would stop and tell them to hand over the sticks. We always would have 2 ratty specimens to sacrifice for the good of the game.

 

[spartacus53]

Dano, I just remembered the only thing that came close to a roof gutter was the dreaded garage rooftop. We had one directly in line from our favorite off the point location. The older building in NYC at the time had a piece of granite and in some case slate that stood about a foot high and ran around the brick buildings. You would use the lip as the point and slam the ball into it. If you have a great hit it would fly onto the rooftop for a home run. But street rules were if you "lost" the ball you had to retrieve it, same went for stick ball. rules is rules when you're a kid.

I got one of my nicknames for my ability to scamper up the sides of walls to gain access to the roof "Spiderman". Most of the buildings in the area had a brick outcrop design, so all you had to do was climb on to each 1/2 ledge until you reached your destination. I also think that is what started me off as being somewhat of a "daredevil".

 

[Dano Sverige]

I think everything we used to play was illegal!

Do you feel kids today miss out on all that stuff mate? Don't mean to sound like the grumpy old bugger at the end house but it just seems none of the old "street games" get played anymore. There's no improvisation or ingenuity anymore. We used to make footballs out of rolled up newspaper and scotch tape if nobody had a proper ball. We'd rip a piece of someones garden fence off if we needed a bat. Now they won't play unless they go buy the latest aluminium bat or official "world cup 2010" state of the art ball!
That's if you can ever get them out of the house away from the PC,ps3,xbox,Nintendo, or Wii in the first place!
Nobody returns bottles anymore,mainly due to them being plastic now but still. Nobody steals apples from peoples apple trees anymore. Kids don't fill streets with laughter and screaming anymore...unless they're beating someone up or screaming abuse!
I just wonder what these kids today will be typing here when they hit 50 years old, what will their "Halcyon days" consist of?
WoW, Halo 10, Resident evil 12, Battlefield 5, call of duty "kill 'em all let god sort 'em out" ??
I'm almost sad i won't be around to see it.

EDIT: Haha..yeah we had the "you lost it,you go get it" rules too. We had an old evangelical church at the end of our favourite street,with a high and large sloping roof.Not even the bravest of us would chance that roof,especially after the first kid to try fell straight through 25ft down and broke a leg lol. When they finally demolished that church it was as though it'd been a ball factory!

 

[spartacus53]

I am with you 100% on your assessment. When my boys were young I tried to introduce them to some of the finer games around like, Johnny on the pony, Skully, Red Rover, kick the can, roundup, etc.. Some caught on for a while, but then it was back to their comfort zones. I am happy they stuck with US football, basketball and softball, but I wanted them to experience other things.

It's like you said, today's kids have no ingenuity and couldn't come up with 1/2 the things we did to get by. It's a crying shame they can't even think of making a volleyball net from an old sheet.

You're so right, in 50 years they will be talking about their carpel tunnel injuries from playing video games.

 

[bigscoop]

OK, here's a sore spot with me. When I was a kid I had a Johnny West and a couple of G.I. Joes, and by pure imagination they ended up playing every role possible. Today, new toys are only new and valued for a week, if you're lucky. However, we as parents are at fault, because we allow ourselves to literally buy into the big marketing scheme. I recently read a report that claimed that the child young teen retail market was more then 80 billion a year, and that money sure isn't coming from the kids. So who is at fault? It's not the kids.

Lake cottages are now three and four bedroom year round homes, the simplicity is gone, the nostalgia is gone, and who is to blame, again, it sure isn't the kids who have no idea how to get by on the simple things, and for the most part, have very little appreciation for the simple things.

As parents we can point fingers all day long at today's uncaring, unappreciative kids, and yet who is footing the bill that has made it all possible? Kids with cell phones........give me a break! Just about every kid I grew up with, and many of those were sons and daughters of lawyers and doctors, and guess what, just about all of them had to work and save their own money to buy their first car, or at least a good portion of it. We can say that kids today have no values, but who is teaching them and paving the way and making it all possible. I agree it has all changed, but if you want kids to open doors for older people and show outward respect towards others then you have to do those same things yourself. And if you want them to value the buck and the simple things in life then you must always retain that value within yourself. It is a big mistake to place the blame on the kids of this generation. Just my opinion,.........and now you may start stoning me.

 

[spartacus53]

There is no need to go off on you Bigscoop. You're right about the parenting for the most part. My kids were lucky to have me as their father, hell I'm still a kid. Aaahhh, the good old G.I Joe's I had a few of them too. Unfortunately I also had one that couldn't stand anymore, so he was always a prone sniper. Poor guy lost his foot in "63" on a land mine (firecracker), but it did teach you about casualties of wartime. He also had an injury to his "kung-fu grip" again the work of an explosive detonating in his had. I tell you those toys went through hell, but they held up!!!

Also, I had the raised them the way I was raised, you had to earn money. Yes, they got an allowance, but they needed to learn how to earn and save. If they wanted something expensive, they got the same deal as I did.. Earn 1/2 I'll cover the rest. If they want something that bad they'll work for it and appreciate it more.

Not only did I actively play with my kids, I also got them to think when playing. If they didn't have the "Bat cave" yet, we made one from pillows and blankets. Needed a LTD for your little soldiers invasions? We cut up a milk carton. I guess I was also lucky that my father spent time with me and made me think of ways to substitute items for those we didn't have.

Maybe that is why I have a pretty good imagination

My favorite saying to my kids was "Want doesn't mean you're gonna get".

 

[Dano Sverige]

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...thunk! Did that hurt?

No,i guess you're right in a lot of ways. Money has been more available,and more easily dished out than when we were kids. Why play soccer with a tennis ball when you can play Fifa 2010? Why play cowboys and indians or "war" when you can play it a hell of a lot better on a ps3 or xbox? No using sticks for guns nowadays, no "bang bang bang,you're dead!" "no i'm not coz i'm a tank...BOOM!"
No more playing with Dinky or matchbox or hotwheels cars. No more "action man" the Brit version of GI joe. No more of what's already been mentioned in the posts above!
I just feel that it all helped me myself develop my very vivid imagination and thirst for knowledge. How will kids gain a thirst for things like our own metal detecting when they're rarely outside,throwing a knife into a tree for 6 hours and finding a very old coin when it bounces off into the long grass,or such?
What about the first sexual fumblings and embarrassments? Nowadays a 14 yr old's been watching "youporn" or 8,000 other porno sites and knows more than we ever will!!

The times we had as kids were all our own work,we congregated with our friends and came up with things to do,things that will be remembered a lifetime,but granted, our parents didn't or couldn't lavish money and gifts on us like today.
It's a shame,but i suppose every other generation goes through the "kids today don't know they're born.No idea what fun is!" stage.

 

[spartacus53]

Correct.. between the internet and all the electronic gadgets out there today's kids are growing up like "veal's". Come to think of it, if I had the internet back then like it was today, one of my arms would have looked like "Popeye's".

And as far as personal growth, you are again correct. We always looked for more knowledge and a better way of doing things. I believe its helped me at various jobs always looking to improve what I was doing. I had noticed on another of my posts that kids were fixing vacuums at an early age. I learned many fundamentals of working with tools and electricity, but never went as far as trying to be a mechanic. On the other hand, I was always looking and thinking of a way to better a product already on the market.

It's like you mentioned in a different post entirely. Some people have certain gifts and abilities, and you work with it. Those that don't have it, need to find another way. That is all so true.

 

[Tubecity]

What about all the time spent in the woods, building treehouses, shacks or digging caves into the
steeper hillsides. We had a cave so deep, all the parents came to see it & the Dad's caved it in &
filled it up before any of us young hoodlums got trapped in it. We even had an old carpet in it.
Wiffle ball, Olympic basketball games & others where you were the country of your heritage , I
was Germany, Randy was Sweden & etc. Putting a piece of fencing pipe into a coffee can, filling
it with cement, then drop a lit cherry bomb down it followed by a golf ball. That mortar would shoot
a golf ball completely out of sight. Crab apple battles, hide & go seek, release. We were never bored.

 

[diggummup]

Yes it's a sad world this has become. Kids today will never be able to enjoy the things we did because todays society has become complacent with non physical activities and soft with overprotectiveness. Not to mention the laws today would not allow many things we use to do for fun or take for granted. I remember going to high school with a pack of smokes in my top pocket and a buck knife strapped to my belt. Imagine a kid doing that nowadays. He'd be on the 5 oclock news with a felony weapons possesion charge. Many of the kids of yesteryear have grown into fat lazy slobs who shouldn't have ever procreated to begin with. That's part of the problem. There should be some type of mental aptitude test that has to be taken before you can be allowed to have kids. And don't even get me going on the spanking issue. Liberalism has killed this country. The pure unadulterated pu55ification of America! OK i'm done. Sorry I went off topic, it's been a long day.

 

[bigscoop]

I can remember going to the lake with my grandparents, you just took your fishing pole, your swim suit, old tennies, a sweat shirt and sweat pants, a flashlight, and an empty coffee can to house all of the night crawlers you had to find yourself, which in itself was an adventure. During the day we swam, hunted for frogs and turtles and tadpoles, we fished, made wooden boats, etc. I can remember all of the cottage owners scraping the pain off thier wooden boats and repainting them, shared labor with pride, and I can recall everyone always helping each other whenever someone needed a new roof or pier, etc. I can remember the musty smell, the breeze through the screened windows at night, the sound of the crickets and frogs, and the radio because there was no TV. I can remember all of those late night hunts for giant fish with flashlight. I can remember the catfish that refused to let go of my finger. I can recall how quiet and peaceful the lake was, a few boats sitting out by the lilly pads, the long canepoles reaching high into the air, cork boobers being pulled under by fat hungry perch and hand sized blueguill. But most of all I can remember how everyone allowed other boaters to have their space, if the point where you were wanting to fish was already taken you went somewhere else...."quietly." In my day, and my father's day, and in his father's day, going to the lake was an escape from the modern world and it wasn't suppose to be complex, modern, or expensive, and that was the joy in going. It was in fact, an adventure and an escape filled with the simple things. Not anymore, and that's sad.....very sad.

 

[spartacus53]

I can remember going to the lake with my grandparents, you just took your fishing pole,

Let me stop you right there... at the fishing pole.... My first fishing pole was a stick, with a sting and a straight pin for a hook... No lie, I am going to try and dig up a picture and post it later

I think it may be on a slide, if that's that case, I'll take a picture of a picture and post that.

......but the rest of your story is so true on how simple life was and how well people worked together.

 

[bigscoop]

I can remember going to the lake with my grandparents, you just took your fishing pole,

Let me stop you right there... at the fishing pole.... My first fishing pole was a stick, with a sting and a straight pin for a hook... No lie, I am going to try and dig up a picture and post it later

I think it may be on a slide, if that's that case, I'll take a picture of a picture and post that.

......but the rest of your story is so true on how simple life was and how well people worked together.

I know people now days who go to the lake only to come home stressed and worn out, as if they can't wait to get back to work so they can take it easy for a few days.

 

[Jimmy(PA)]

We had fast pitch and self pitch, we used tennis balls and brooms sticks. Every street in the neighborhood had its own teams and we would play eachother. Every kid had his favorite broomstick bat, we would try to revolutionize the design with rubber band grips, electric tape... I use to find tons of balls from the other kids on the roof's, or down the school's grates or in the sewers. I would use a coat hanger sometimes and other times a stick with tape. It was good for getting the kids lunch money that they lost down the metal grates too. I don't see too many kids playing anymore. Where I grew up the neighborhoods went to hell when the government started giving the trash from the projects free homes, all the working class moved, and the games died out. I do miss them though.

 

[bigscoop]

We use to play "kick the can" late into the night on the weekends. Can you imagine bringing that one back today! But it did help keep the kids in shape. God, we actually kicked a can for entertainment!

 

[Jimmy(PA)]

We use to play "kick the can" late into the night on the weekends. Can you imagine bringing that one back today! But it did help keep the kids in shape. God, we actually kicked a can for entertainment!

Thats one game I never played. We played spring, and suey? alot I dont even know how to spell it but you would throw the ball against the wall and if someone cought your throw after it bounced off the wall and before it hit the ground you had to run and tag the wall and say suey before they hit you with the ball. If they cought the ball with one hand everyone had to run and tag the wall. If you were hit 3 times before tagging the wall you had the stand against the wall and everyone had a turn throwing the ball at you. Ahhh the fun. The whole fat and lazy kid thing seemed to hit in the 90's. Even in the 80's no one really had computers or internet and cable tv was still pretty rare and even then only had a few channels.

 

[bigscoop]

You know, I feel sorry for kids today. I just remembered how some of the high school kids use to drive around at night with water guns and dressed in long overcoats and hats, like gansters. Us younger kids would lay in wait with water balloons and water guns and we would eventually have this huge water fight right in the street. The older kids had good clean fun, the younger kids had good clean fun. Try that one today!