Banker-Broker
These were played on Brooklyn in the 1930s.
In the dirt strip between the sidewalk and the street a hole was scooped out that served as the bank.
We called it a "schimmel" or "shim" from the Yiddish word for hole.
The banker was in charge.
Each "depositor" in turn would stand behind a line scraped in the dirt six feet from the shim and toss a fistful of filberts toward the hole.
The hope was to get an even number in the shim, in which case the banker paid us with an equal number of nuts.
If an odd number fell in the shim, he collected them from us.
If no nuts entered the hole, the banker would collect all the nuts thrown, his "fee" for the office of banker.
The odds of winning or losing are almost equal, so the banker's advantage was to collect a nut from every thrower.
If a player managed to throws his nuts so that all fell into the hole, he became the banker.
Posted by: Albert Rothman
In the dirt strip between the sidewalk and the street a hole was scooped out that served as the bank.
We called it a "schimmel" or "shim" from the Yiddish word for hole.
The banker was in charge.
Each "depositor" in turn would stand behind a line scraped in the dirt six feet from the shim and toss a fistful of filberts toward the hole.
The hope was to get an even number in the shim, in which case the banker paid us with an equal number of nuts.
If an odd number fell in the shim, he collected them from us.
If no nuts entered the hole, the banker would collect all the nuts thrown, his "fee" for the office of banker.
The odds of winning or losing are almost equal, so the banker's advantage was to collect a nut from every thrower.
If a player managed to throws his nuts so that all fell into the hole, he became the banker.
Posted by: Albert Rothman
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