• US Navy Blimp in sky. During WWII a blimp was used to defend against aircraft attack. You always felt safe when you looked up and saw this airship.
• 59th Street Bridge
• young lovers on roof
• little girl listening to radio
• Blue Star Flag in window: A Blue Star Mother proudly displayed this flag when her son or daughter were serving in the war.
• mother, child and grandmother waving with joy to sailor’s homecoming

• Pigeon Coop: man on roof training pigeons to fly to certain places and then calling them back to their coop
• boys running over rooftops
• Gold Star Flag in window: Sadly, some mothers had the tragedy of their Blue Star Flag turning into a Gold Star Flag, displaying the loss of a son or daughter in WWII – making them Gold Star Mothers.

• Third Avenue El – (closed down in 1955)
• Welcome Home Banner to welcome home returning soldiers and sailors from the war; block parties always followed with music, beer and ice cream.
• policeman running after kids on roof
• coal truck delivering coal to heat the tenements
• two boys playing, “Kings”, against a wall – with chalk: players would write in each sidewalk box: “Ace”, “King”, “Queen” and “Jack”. Each player got a box they had to defend. The player behind the “Ace” would serve by bouncing the ball on the ground first so that it bounced up, hit the wall and went into the next box of the player on his/her right (the “King”). That player then would hit it in the same manner against the wall into the box of the next player (“Queen”), and so on down the line, and then back up to the “Ace”. If a player missed, he got a letter, “K”, and was moved down to the last box. When a player accrued all the letters of the word “King”, he would be “Kinged”, and was out of the game. Last player standing was winner.
• Killing Hitler: boy climbing a lamppost to set fire to a stuffed dummy representing Hitler; adults and children would plan the event and clap and scream, “Hooray!”, as Hitler burned.
• Stickball was really baseball, except that the bat was a broom handle and the ball was a Spalding. Bases were manhole covers and cars and walls were foul lines.

• two girls sunbathing on “Tar Beach”
• woman on the roof smoking and looking at all the games and activities

• Lineman – A man would climb up a pole in an alley to attach lines for customers to hang wash. If you didn’t have the 50 cents, your father or brother had to climb the pole and attach the line.
• mother, on roof, taking a picture (with a box camera) of her daughter in her First Communion dress – There were no lighting features on cameras yet.
• boys smoking and gambling on roof
• woman cooking food in a pot

• man in window reading a newspaper
• mother washing her baby in kitchen tub
• little girl on fire escape watching her baby brother
• woman and her granddaughter throwing money to a man playing the violin

• Woman in window waving to candy store owner across the street to say she’ll be right down to get her phone call – Most people did not have phones, so storeowners allowed their customers to receive important calls at their stores.
• Double Dutch – two girls turning two ropes: If there were more than one jumper, the next jumper would jump in chanting, “down the Mississippi where the boats go push” and push the first jumper out.
• Two small girls playing on an iceman’s wagon: The one on the chained wheel would make the wagon move back and forth as far as the chain would allow.
• Girl playing Hopscotch – Players would use the top of a tin can, fold it in half and stamp on it to flatten out the sharp edges. This was called a “potsy”. A player would toss the potsy on the first square, #1, and hop past it onto the next squares. When the player got to the top two squares they had to jump up, turn all the way around and land with one foot in each square. The player, then, hopped back down, bent over, picked up the potsy and hopped back out. If successful, the player would, then, toss the potsy onto the next square, #2, and repeat the same task. The first player to complete all squares without falling over would gain a square. Thereafter, the other players had to jump over the taken square without falling. A player had to have good balance and was not allowed to touch any lines of any squares.
• boys playing Stoop Ball (or off the point) – The player bounced the ball against the edge of a step (called “placing the ball”) so that the ball would fly back at an angle in a way that the other players couldn’t catch it on the fly. If the opposing player caught the ball, the players changed places.
• boys climbing ladder to reach the fire escape

• “A, My Name is Alice…”: The player bounced the ball and swung her leg over the ball while reciting, “A my name is Alice”… (next bounce)… “and I come from Alabama”…(next bounce)…”and my husband’s name is Alan”…(net bounce)…”and we sell apples”. If successful, “B my name is Barbara”, etc., each time swinging your leg over the ball while reciting the script.
• Paddle Ball: is a paddle with an elastic string attached to a small ball. The object was to hit the paddle with the ball without missing.
• “I Declare War”: Each of five children would stand in front of a pie-wedge section within a circle which included the name of a country written in chalk. Whoever had the ball was “IT”, and that person would say, “I declare war on ….” He/she would, then, throw the ball and yell the country to be declared war upon. At that point, all the other players would flee. If the player caught the ball, he would say, “Halt!”, and would throw the ball at the nearest player. If he hit him, that person would get a “W”, and was “IT”. When a player got the letters, “W-A-R”, he was out.
• boy, in pain, sitting on car running board after being thrown off train

• “Johnny-on-the-Pony” (a.k.a. – “Buck-Buck”): One boy would stand against a building wall and be the “pillow”. Each of his team would crouch in a line, arms locked around each other’s waists, to form the pony. Each player on the opposing team would run and jump as high as possible in the air to come down hard on the backs of the human pony and then climb to the front near the pillow guy to give room for his team to jump and land. Once all the players made it on top of the pony, they would shout, “Johnny-on-the-Pony”, three times as the bottom players tried to shake them off. If the pony held up then it was their turn to jump.
• Iceman delivering ice for ice boxes: many families did not have refrigerators.
• “Piggy-back Indian Arm Wrestling”: the winners would throw down their opponents.
• “Leapfrog”: Each player crouched down while the other players jumped over him/her, until there was no one else crouched over. Then, he/she would crouch over for other players to jump over him/her – the faster the running and jumping, the more exciting.
• old crabby woman throwing a pail of water on boys because they are making too much noise

• boys climbing up fire escape
• woman handing a pot to her neighbor

• Uncle Sam poster
• little boy stealing fruit but unaware the shop owner is ready to chase him with a stick
• man playing violin for money

• old woman passing the time looking out her window
• little girl getting a ride on boy’s tricycle
• boys pitching pennies against a building
• Skate crate scooters, hand made by boys from milk crates: a 2×4 piece of wood and four wheels that had been taken from roller skates and nailed to a board… They would nail handles on top of the milk crate and also paint designs on the front.
• three boys playing “Marbles” on a manhole cover sewer top: The dips in the cover were used for gullies. The child would flip their marble with their thumb and score if they got a marble into a manhole gully. There were different rules, but most kids owned a collection of marbles and were proud of them. They would swap them among themselves to get a range of different colors and sizes. A shooter marble was a large marble called a, “Mib”, and was used to knock down the smaller ones. A player kept the marbles he knocked off the cover.

• “Roller State Train”: Kids on skates held each other around the waist to create a train. The leader pulled as fast as he could to make the train go faster and faster. The leader would make quick sharp turns, first to the left, and then to the right, creating a whip-like effect, sending kids flying off the train onto parked cars and people.
• Boxball: four boys playing Boxball on 4 squares (similar to tennis without the net) – the center horizontal line in the sidewalk concrete was the net and the outside lines of the 4 squares was the court. Two teams were formed. The first player slapped the ball into the opposing side. The other player slapped it back. This continued, back and forth, until someone missed or the ball went out of bounds. When a player missed, then the server got one point. Only the server could score if the player missed. If the server missed, then the other team would serve. The first team to get 21 points, won.
• boy riding a handmade “Racer”, made from a 2×4 piece of wood with roller skate wheels

• “Ring-o-Levio”: Players on one team were given time to hide and were, then, searched out by members of the other team, who tried to capture them and put them in “jail”. When a player was caught, the chant was “Ring-o-levio 123, 123, 123!” The “prisoner” could be released if one of their teammates, who had not been captured, broke in and shouted, “All in, all in, free all.”

• one girl and two boys trading comic books: The boys here are willing to trade two “girl” comic books for one “Dick Tracy” comic book, but she puts her thumb down and wants three “girl” comic books for one “Dick Tracy” or “Superman”.
• candy store owner calling up to a customer across the street, telling her she has a phone call
• two girls dancing the “Lindy” from a radio in the window of a ground floor apartment
• three boys turning on the Johnny Pump to cool everyone off on a sweltering summer day

• boy with peashooter about to shoot a pea at a woman shopping
• sailor returning from WWII calling up to his family in the window
• two girls playing “Boys and Girls”: With chalk they wrote in sidewalk boxes, different subjects, such as Boys, Girls, Fruits, Flowers, Cars, and Movie Stars. The first player rolled the ball into the box saying, “Boys”, and recited different boys names in each box by bouncing the ball and saying a name at the same time. If the player was successful, they rolled the ball into the next box, “Girls”, and did the same thing. If a player completed all subjects, then the player would own any box they wanted and all the other players had to jump over that box, making the game harder.
• Avenues still had cobbled stones but side streets were beginning to be tar-paved.

• Hot Dog man: There were many hot dog stands throughout the tenement area. There were few, or no, restaurants.

• four boys Piggy-Back fighting: The winner was declared when a player (the loser) was pulled off his partner’s back.
• two boys with sticks and shields (garbage can covers) playing “King of the Mountain”, or,”King of the Hill”
• joy ride for kids in the rumble seat of an old jalopy

• three boy playing “Bloody Knuckles”: This was a non-sanctioned game which tested your tolerance for pain. Example: One player drew a card; if the player drew an 8 of black Clubs he got slapped on the knuckles with a deck of cards, 8 times softly. However, if a player drew an 8 of red Hearts, they got hit with a squeezed deck of cards 8 times, as hard as possible, on their knuckles. The first player who flinched was out. Whoever lasted the longest won the game.
• yellow cab with returning soldier (as a passenger) and a boy hitching a ride on the back

• little girl happy that the pump is turning on

Hover your mouse over the image to see details

Tap on the image to see details

“Tenement Life and Games – New York City 1945”

By Demerah Campbell 2004

Tenement Life and Games is a pause in time that NYC will never see again. This painting took me 15 years to paint because of all the research needed. With every sale I attach a two-page typed document explaining each subject in the painting.