Rainy day in the projects

We lived in a 6 story building in the Boulevard projects in East New York. Everyone in the building knew each other.  People didn't even  lock their doors. Things have changed a whole lot, people have 3 locks on their doors now.  If they were allowed to have dogs, they would have pit bulls.  When it was  nice weather  we had lots to do outside.  You knew it was  Spring by the sound of the metal roller-skate wheels on the concrete.  We wore  Union Hardware brand skates and changed the clamps from the little ones to the big ones.  We all wore  skate keys round our necks.  Skating backwards was a lot of fun, so was  roller hockey and roller derby.  On rainy days  we had a few favorite games.  Blindman's bluff was a  good one. We would blindfold one person , and he would have to grab someone and say "blind man bluff 1-2-3 3 times.  The game was  confined to one floor of the building. We couldn't have someone be blindfolded and  chase us down the staircases. That would hurt ,, We would also play something like dodgeball with a  rubber ball like a  Pensie Pinkie or a Spalding. We'd throw the  ball hard and if it missed the person you were aiming at it would hit Eddie Napolitano's living room wall.  Eddie would come out yelling at us and we would run up to the 3rd floor.  We would eventually be on the  6th floor after being chased all day.  It was a good way to make a rainy day pass.  Another thing we would like to do was to  go in the elevator and  pull that  door open from inside when between two floors.  When you did that, the elevator would stop.  You would  reach in and  press the latch inside the  space on the upper right. That would release the  outer door and we would push that door open.  We all would  jump out onto safe ground. If we missed we would be dead.  it was good fun.  We sometimes would do it between the  1st floor and the 2nd., and jump out on to the first  floor.  This would allow us to  jump down to below the 1st floor. Someone would keep the door open  and  the other person would collect  any money dropped down their.  There were  2 big thick springs at the bottom,  i guess to stop the elevator from  crashing if the cables broke.  if someone didn't keep holding the door open , the elevator could move and  there would  be a chance of being stuck or  trapped down there.  Another alternative but  crazier was  standing on the handrail inside of the elevator and pushing open the  ceiling panel then climbing on top of the elevator. There was a lot of  electrical and cables up there, and it was not comfortable. It was  downright scary and dark. and when it stopped at a floor, while riding the top of the elevator,  it shook and  made a jolting stop on the floors.  It was  scary but fun.
     Other  games in the hallways, were  spinning tops,  playing crack top, where you try to split the  other guys wooden top in half with  your  top.  Tops were fun and came in  two kinds, the rounded ball bearing  point and the   sharp pointed diggers.  The  digger was better for  crack top , the ball bearing was easier to spin it and do some tricks.
    Lastly,  baseball cards flipping was a favorite.  We would play "off the wall", this was a  game where you  held a baseball card facedown with the long edge against the wall or hold the card flat against the wall.  Whomever went first would  hold  a card against the wall and let go the cards would spin to the ground.  The  2nd person would  hold the card either edge or face against the wall and if it landed on a card he would keep it.  If he missed the other guy kept it.  Then we'd do it again , switching who went first.  We would also flip cards.  Maybe  4 cards and the second guy had to flip their cards and  match the heads and tails to win.  Usually if you held a  "head" outward , you would  flip a tail. That is once you had the  power factor down.   Some cards were easier to get than others.  Pete Runnel's on the Senators and  Richie Ashburn on the Phillies were easy.  Don Drysdale on the Brooklyn Dodgers and  Mickey Mantle of the  Yankees, were harder.  We would also play "closest to the wall" with the cards,  You had to toss the card toward the wall. Throwing it kind of  like a "backhanded linoleum throw".  You would try to get close to that wall, or even better  , throw a  "waller" that would stand up flat against the wall. that was pretty much a guaranteed win.  Basball card games were fun. Collecting them was fun too.  Nowadays,  kids buy the whole collection and never  even touch them. They keep them mint to  increase the value. We would  touch them  flip them  , bend them.  We would  buy  a  pack of  5 or 5 cards with  bubble gum in it.  Topp's made them.  We would have check lists and get the set  2 , 3, or 4 times We would trade them, it was  awesome.  
    Sometimes we would  play the  closest to the wall game with  coins.  Same rules.  You could win some  good money , if you were lucky.
   I guess the last game was  ,  ring someone's bell and run away.  We used to do that to people we didn't really like.  Especially,  Tigerlady , in   6 B,,  she was a little crazy and would  chase us and  curse at us really loud.
    So much for fun in the rain.  After the rain  I would like to  leave the building through the 2nd floor hall window,  go out on the the   2nd floor roof,  hang on the    fence below and swing down . It was  something  that would make the parents  panic that  someone would fall and  get hurt. We seemed to like danger.  Then we would go to the curb and  look at the rainbows formed from the puddles of rain, mixed with  motor oil ..I liked those colors,,,, That was  a ghetto rainbow.  Hey, it looked nice.

Relatives of mine

I had an aunt with a beard.
I had an uncle named Juice because he drank a lot of orange juice.
I had a grandmother with no finger nail.
I had a grandfather who spoke only Russian and liked to throw handkerchiefs and call them birds.
I had a mother who played high school basketball. She also used cigarette ashes as her secret ingredient in her cooking.
I had a father who taught me to use leaves when out of toilet paper. he also taught me to pee on  cigarette butts and split them apart.
I had an uncle who made my aunt fall wherever he saw broken sidewalk or floor or step near a store,       Then he would call the lawyer and sue the store.
The same uncle could take the grass or blood stains out of your clothes, he was a spotter at a dry cleaners.
I had an in-law who was named Willy the Horse, he died at the racetrack and was a mobster.
I have a nephew who stole bikes and hid them in my mom's basement.
I have a brother who cut his pinky off while doing arts and crafts.
I have a sister who hid a guy in my mom's basement for  6 months before anyone found out.
I have another sister who took my address book and  went off to Europe at age 15 and visited all my friends there.
I had an uncle who was an undefeated pro boxer, but quit because he had good teeth.
I had an aunt who was a great artist.
I had a cousin  Chonka, who I never met, all anyone knew of her , was she lived in Arizona.
I have several relatives in Argentina, that haven't been met.