Roland T. Mayer's History of Hoboken Play

Museum member and born-and-reared Hobokenite Roland T. Mayer, a retired Chief Engineer of Military Space Operations for G.E. now living in the Philadelphia suburbs, sent us his memories of Hoboken during the 1930s, when he lived at 7th and Washington Streets and attended Sts. Peter & Paul. The photo at left shows six of the Seventh Street Condors. 

Included in his list of street games - punch ball, box ball, ringalerio, johnnie ride the pony, kick the can, and marbles - were some activities that were specific to Hoboken, such as dressing in costume on Thanksgiving, and going door-to-door asking "Anything for Thanksgiving?" And on Election Day eve, kids would bake "mickeys" (potatoes" in tin cans punched full of holes).

Mr. Mayer was also a member of the "7th Street Condors," a group of around fifteen boys from ten to fourteen years old, who lived in the vicinity of Seventh & Eighth Streets and Washington, and who met during the Depression years to play sports.

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