childhood rhymes

[Jonathan Lighter]

We always used these balls.  They're pink rubber and real bouncy.The manufacturer's name, Spalding, is printed clearly on each ball, and that's what we called 'em: Spaldings.
This was in Manhattan in the '50s.

I've never heard anybody use the word "spaldeen."

JL

Sam Clements <SClements at NEO.RR.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Sam Clements
Subject: Re: childhood rhymes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From my reading, a "spaldeen" was a pink rubber? ball that was used to play
stickball, stoopball, Chinese handball, and boxball. This in in NYC.
SC

>----- Original Message -----
>Subject: Re: childhood rhymes



>
> Early '20's?! Wow! Even my mother, who's 93, was a girl in those days!
> Well, the tennis balls were used, not new!;-) And, by the way, what the
> hell is a "spaldeen'? I know this word only as a literary term. When I
> first ran across it, way back when, I assumed that it was a term for a
> baseball, derived from the "Spalding" brand name. However, further
> reading over the years has persuaded me that it's either not a baseball
> or is not only a baseball.
> Do me some solid and tell me and explain it to me. I'd consider it a
> real mitzve.
>
> -Wilson


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - 100MB free storage!