When I was a girl, we lived in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. My childhood was idyllic. None of the mothers worked outside the home, and the block I lived on was filled with children, so there was always someone outside to play with, especially in the summer.

The boys would play stickball in the street, and the girls would play jump rope or potsy, a game like hopscotch, where we drew the board on the sidewalk with chalk.

Every kid had a Spalding pink rubber ball — a “Spaldeen,” which gave us many hours of fun. We had all types of games, where we bounced the ball against the house. Unfortunately, sometimes the ball would fall into a storm sewer, and the boys would try to retrieve it with the stickball stick.

None of our mothers drove cars, and even if they did, they did not have access to them since their husbands used them to travel to work. Our mode of transportation was always the bicycle or our own two feet.

When I think back, our mothers were lucky — no cars, no car-pools. During the school year, after-school activities were no problem since P.S. 244, my elementary school, was across the street from my house. In the summer when I was about 13, the boys played basketball in the school yard and the girls hung out and sneaked peeks at the cute boys.

In May, the ice cream trucks began arriving daily, signaling the beginning of the summer season, ringing their bells and attracting hordes of shouting children. Both Good Humor and Bungalow Bar trucks visited our neighborhood, and our ears were always alert for the sound of their bells.

One of the many ice cream treats on hand was a Dixie cup with a photo of a popular actress or actor on the inside of the cover. The girls would save these and trade them, hoping to get the ones we were missing to complete our collections. The actors and actresses pictured on the covers are all in their 80s or 90s now, and some have passed on.

My special favorite was the Charlotte Russe truck. The Charlotte was a circular piece of sponge cake covered with real whipped cream and topped with a cherry. Those were the days before imitation whipped cream. On the bottom of the Charlotte was a circle of cardboard which you pushed up as you ate the treat. Of course, we were only allowed one Charlotte, but if a truck appeared today, I’d certainly have two or three.

The kids played outside until we were called in for supper. After supper, the parents congregated on the porches, since there was no air conditioning, and the kids played in the street again until dark when our mothers called us in for the night.

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