Stick ball-- as i know it was always played with a stick-- the handle of a mop or broom (handle where sold seperately from mop head or broom heads)
and we played a variation of kick the can.
Before cans had "refunds" (only bottles did) you could crush the can (steel, not todays aluminum) and flatten it.
The game was played in an intersection with two storm drains (sewers) at diagonal corners-- (we had one intersection in the area that had 4 storm drains-- one on each corner- and played a four team or doubles)

the game is similar to soccar-- only every time you score a goal you lost your can--

To form the can right, you needed a can that had both lids intact--so a soda or beer can that had been punctured --with a church key-- was fine, but a can that had the top lid cut off by a can opener wasn't.

we also played "jonny on the pony" and many varieties of hand ball-- all with spaldeens--little pink hand balls from the Spalding NY Ball company. spaldeen is a NY corruption, from the Irish--where een is used as a diminutive ie, Maureen (for Maura) Peggeen (for Peggy or Margaret). The Spalding company made many balls, but little balls where spaldeens. Eens shows up in some other irish words (smithereens-- little pieces) "smashed to smithereens!"

Colleen, now a common girls name, was once a pet name, like pumkin, or peaches, or sugar plum-- but it was "little lump of coal" . Coal (if you don't have to mine it, or shovel it into a boiler) is really quite beautiful-- all black and shiny. (and as imported sourse of fuel, expensive!) and it is used as an adjective. a little girl, with shiny dark hair or eyes might be compared favorable to a lump of coal and called a coleen. As time passed, it just became complimentary, latter as just a way to describe a pretty girl (a colleen) and finally, began to be used as a name--
My mother used to gag every time she heard it used as a name-- and went crazy that priest would accept it as a name-- since they had rejected my mother choice of Deirdre-- as a pagan name, and not one to be used for a baptism!


my other obsession