For those of you not up on your manhole cover knowledge, it's main function is to act as a removable plate forming a lid over the opening of a manhole in a street for access to sewer, electric lines, or water lines. It's designed to prevent people and things from falling in and to keep out unauthorized people and material. Manhole covers are most often made from cast iron, concrete, or a combination of the two. This makes them relatively inexpensive and pretty darn heavy. To remove manhole covers, most covers feature "pick holes" into which a hook handle is inserted to lift them.
But to my Dad, Herb, as a young boy growing up in the Bronx, New York in the late 1930's and early 1940's, a manhole cover meant only one thing, home plate. Like other kids, he was a devoted fan of his beloved "Bronx Bombers", the New York Yankees. If he and his pals weren't listening to the baseball game on the radio, they were playing stickball. Stickball is a street game related to baseball usually played in large cities in the Northeast. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball about the size of a tennis ball but without the felt usually a "spaldeen" (a high-bounce pink rubber ball made by Spalding) or a Hi-Bounce Pinky (also known as a "pensy pinky" and, you guessed it, is also pink). The rules come from baseball but can be modified depending on the location of play such as a street where a manhole cover becomes home plate and the buildings on either side constitute the foul lines.
As my Dad told the story, it was a bright summer day and he and his buddies were engaged in a rousing game of stickball. It was hot and humid as Herb stood at the plate (manhole cover) clutching the worn broom handle his friend Eddy had swiped out of his mom's cleaning closet (boy, was he going to "catch it" when he got home). Herb ignored the sweat trickling down his temple as he gazed at Billy, the pitcher. He wasn't just a kid in a t-shirt and dungarees rolled up at the cuff anymore, he was Joe DiMaggio facing down Bobo Newsom of the Detroit Tigers. Already he had hit two foul balls bouncing them off the same brownstone row house. The boys had seen the owner of the house shaking his fist at them through the window but they paid him no mind. I mean, come on, they were in the middle of a game!
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| The ball "thwacked" off of the broom handle and careened to the left where it banged off of the brownstone row house just below the window with the shaking fist. |
Billy reared back and threw the bright pink spaldeen. Herb watched the ball all the way to the plate where he took a tremendous swing. The ball "thwacked" off of the broom handle and careened to the left where it banged off of the brownstone row house just below the window with the shaking fist. The window was wrenched open and an angry voice reached their ears. "I've had it with you kids!" the voice shouted. "I've called the cops!" Off in the distance came the wail of a siren.
The boys jumped into action. Eddy scooped up the pink spaldeen and shoved it into his pocket. The other boys scattered leaving Herb still standing over the manhole cover clutching the broomstick. It took him only seconds to realize yet another excellent use for a manhole cover: hiding incriminating evidence. He inserted the broomstick into one of the manhole's pick holes, released it, and watched it drop out of sight. As he ran away to rejoin his pals he thought "Now poor Eddy is REALLY going to "catch it" when he gets home."
BAA, RAM, EWE
14x11 inches, oil on linen canvas, 2019
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Baa, Ram, Ewe - auction ends on Sunday, January 19th at 10:00am PST.
I love the way these sheep are backlit by the setting sun. They look like woolly gems. At least, I think so.
