Comments on: Dead Box

By: sandy

sandy — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:38:25 +0000

I grew up at 6th & oregon, we played Dead Box every day, now i’m going to make one for my grandchildren. Good old so philly………….

By: joyce

joyce — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:10:16 +0000

This brings back so many memories when children was just children having fun. I remember playing this game until we couldn’t play anymore, we called it coodie block, around 17th & wharton street but everyone had a different name for it. To bad the children of today, they don’t know what fun truly is…..

By: Doc

Doc — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 01:47:00 +0000

We carved one in the street with screw drivers 2500 Camac Street

By: bob

bob — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 09:26:21 +0000

Just checkin in as a kid who grew up on Woodstock St. just a few blocks from 22 & Allegheny. WOW! does this bring back some great memories,Dead Box was my favorite and the artical is right you did take pride in making your Beerie although i don’t remember it being called that or having any name at all but 1971 was a long time ago and i might have forgotten. I also used to enjoy making a scooter city style with a metal milk crate a 2×4 and the wheels off an old pair of key skates. Great days Great memories.

By: Vito

Vito — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:42:29 +0000

You forgot something on your diagram of the deadbox. There were two more number boxes (13 and 14) that go on oppisite sides of the skull box. They went the lenth of the skull box but were only about 4 inches wide.

By: Frank

Frank — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 01:06:17 +0000

My dad created the Dead Box for my block located in South Philly. He spray painted a rectangle box and added extra boxes around the Dead Box. His design looked similar to the one above. I also have other street games listed below.

My brother and his friends created a handball field that was spray painted in the middle of the street, which was South of the Dead Box game. Handball was played by either using handies, or fisties. Handies was where a batter would use an opened hand and would try to use their palm to hit the ball. Fisties was when the batter used their fist to hit the ball, which would create more force and projection to the ball. The ball was either a tennis ball, or a racket ball. The field was designed like a regular baseball field, except the pitcher’s mound was placed off centered to home plate.

There was another form of handball, which I will not name because of the political incorrect nature, that required two or players who would slap a ball to the ground with one bounce and hit the wall. The next player would have to wait for the ball to bounce before starting their turn. The goal was to have the ball hit the wall and the ground at the same time, which would stop the ball from bouncing and would roll from the pavement and into the street.

Fastball was played usually in a mall where a strike box is created on a wall. The batter would have a mop, or broom stick to hit the ball. There where no bases in the game, but depending on where the ball landed which was described by the boundaries, determined the base, or homerun of the batter.

Half-ball was where a tennis ball was cut in half where the same rules applied as with Fastball, except this was played on the street. The pitcher would stand between two parked cars and would pitch underhanded to a batter who would stand across the street.

Wire Ball used the same rules as Half-ball, except the ball was either a wiffle ball, or a pimple ball.

Step- ball was played by two or more players. The offense would throw a ball on the step, which would project the ball across the street. Depending on where the ball landed, was predetermined by a base, or homerun.

Of course, all of these games made the neighbors upset because the balls, including cars, were constantly hitting their windows to their houses.

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:27:46 +0000

Oh my god Talk about memories. I was watching Crooklyn (the movie by Spike Lee) and it bought back memories of playing “Tops”in the streets of North Philly. We actually called it Deadman. To my surprise it didnt take to long to find web sites dedicated to the game. I’ve see lots of variations that I have never heard of. I also saw a version that was like a board game. It was well done on a laminated paper that could be rolled up when game play was done. I also came across a version that was played on the computer….go figure.

By: Sultan

Sultan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:49:21 +0000

Yo, I grew up in southwest Philly and we used to play this everyday it seemed!We called it Tops! My dad grew up in south Philly so he informed me @ a young age of its original name. We would use tar and candle wax in our tops to give the tops weight! Then we started using back gamon pieces(gliders). We also had little blocks along the outside of the square that contained the skull, they went up to 20! your diagram above only goes up to 12! This really brought back memories! All the rules that applied! We used to “fin” for blocks and “hunch” to our blocks. lol thanks for the memories!

By: Jerry Solomon

Jerry Solomon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:43:57 +0000

I have been working on a book about my preteen life in South Philadelphia (1940-45). It includes “Dead Box”, “buck-Buck” “Half Ball”, etc.

I also wrote about the PTC, Radio, How-to-build a fruit box saket scooter, the War, Movies, etc.

Jerry

By: vonedaddy

vonedaddy — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:09:38 +0000

There is always one grump old man/woman on every street!