Playstreet on West Duval
by Lady Gray May 1, 2018
Back in 1990, I worked for the city of Philadelphia. I liked being home with my sons but still wanted to contribute to the household income. My solution was to take seasonal jobs. One of them was a summer job as a Playstreet Leader.
In order to do that job, you had to live on or have access to a one-way street and get all the homeowners to sign a petition. If they signed, it meant they agreed to the street being blocked off from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM so the children could play safely in the street for the day. I liked working playstreet because I did not have to get a babysitter because my guys were on the street with me.
The playstreet leader had to coordinate activities for the children to do and serve 2 meals and a snack each day. They got breakfast (cereal), if playstreet started at 8:00 AM, lunch was served at noon and a snack was given at 3:00 PM. It was supposed to be given at 4:00 but a lot of children got picked up by then if they were from another street and came over to play.
During playstreet hours, the children played organized games like Duck-Duck-Goose, Hot Potato, Simon Says (I was always Simon), Dodge Ball, Punchinello and Follow the Leader. We even sectioned off a part of the street so the children could ride their bikes.
One of the residents was a retired teacher who loved children. Twice a week she would prepare some Arts and Crafts for them to do. The children ranged in age from 4 to 13 and she had something for all of them to do. We also had a retired basketball coach who supervised the Dodge Ball which many times were girls against the boys. He was also part of the Simon Says games to make sure nobody cheated.
We sang action songs, drew pictures and the younger children colored on pages donated by the retired teacher who now owned a book store. We had a lot of fun during playstreet. When the sixth week came, the children were sorry to see it end but we, workers: the playstreet leader, assistant, and the teen counselors were glad because we still had 2 weeks of summer to enjoy.
