Johnny on the Pony.........long ago in the Bronx

     Johnny on the Pony………………..from “Hubba, Hubba, Growing up in the Bronx”…a novel being written by yours truly.
     Johnny on the Pony is the name of a children's game, for older kids. There are two teams, usually of 4 or 5 boys each. The first team is the Pony, the second is Johnny. The Pony team lines up this way: One member stands upright with his back braced against a wall. (Side of a building) then the second player bends down, thrusts his head into the first person's stomach, and grabs him tightly around the waist. The next bends down, placing his head between the legs of player 2 and grabbing him tightly around the thighs. Players 4, 5, repeat what number 3 did. The whole team then braces. The Johnny team . . . races at them, one at a time, and vaults atop the row of backs as far forward as he can, shouting "Johnny on a pony, one, two, three!" The object is to cave in the backs of the Pony team. If the jumping team can do that, the other must brace themselves again for the onslaught. If they hold and support all the members of the other team, then that team becomes the Pony and the jumpers have to bend over." - Now, those are the basic rules, but usually someone would wind up getting hurt. You see, the first team jumping would have to be careful that the person standing with his back against the building does not move during the opposite teams jump. If he did move, there was always the chance that someone’s head would crash against the brick wall of the building. Ouch, Ouch…This game would usually start in the early evening and end when we were exhausted or when someone got injured.. Usually from an injury to the head, or a busted back, but hey…what do 11 and 12 year old boys from the Bronx know? The one thing I did know however was to make sure I was on my friend Bruce’s team. (Bruce was the biggest kid in the neighborhood and probably weighed 230 pounds at 12 years old. I was young then, but certainly not stupid.
     Look at all these great things you are learning about growing up in the Bronx back in the day.