I played 3 Basic games: 1) Colors - a type of 'war' card game. You alternated turning over cards until one person matched colors with the other. The person that matched got all cards in the pot. 2) Flipping -- one person flipped cards to the ground. The opponant would then flipped a like number of cards to the ground. The second person would win a card for each card he flipped that matched the corresponding one already on the ground. A match was two heads or two tails. I was great at that. I could flip a tail or head at will. 3) Pitching - closet to the wall wins. Going last was the big advantage. Even if the opponent was closest to the wall, if you could land on top of his card, you win.

All those Mantles I had.

I remember wondering with my friend around 50th Street and 1st or 2nd Avenue in Brooklyn back in '62 or '63. This area is chuck full of warehouses. To my surprise I looked up and saw a big Topps sign. Topps had their factory in Brooklyn back then. We walked in through the loading dock andstopped when I saw barrels filled with cards. I asked if I could have some. I was told "sure, they're last years cards. Take whatever you want." I think I took about a dozen cards then chucked them. After all who would want last year's cards. MISTAKE!