Stoop in DARE

[Joel S. Berson]

At 9/25/2007 10:53 AM, you wrote:
>My stars alive! I'd forgotten about that stoop ball! I used to play it
>myself! The game plays okay against a wooden stoop, too, at least if
>you use a tennis ball.

And better if you use a Spalding (known in the inner city as a
"spaldeen", but gentrified by the Wantagh school superintendent below)?  See
http://www.wantaghschools.org/superintendent/the%20superintendency.htm
for the connection (and growing up in Brooklyn):

The "stoop" (front steps) served the dual purpose of "receiving the
only "toy" I had for many years - a Spalding ball. Stoop ball and
stick ball were America's (inner city) games, and no electronic
device or life-size hobby kit has ever come close to matching the joy
I received from that small, pink, rubber ball always within my grasp.

Joel

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