Card games were also a hangout staple. There were the friendly games like Rummy and Fish. There also were, of course, games like Knucks & GAPO. Since we really had no money to gamble with, we needed to extract a different kind of payment from the losers. This payment invariably involved some level of pain.
In Knucks, when your turn came, you would try to get rid of a card by discarding one that matched the top card in the face-up discard pile. You could match either the face value or the suit. For example, if the top discard was a Jack of Hearts, you could discard either a Jack or any Heart. Every time you could not match on your turn, you would have to draw another card. When someone got rid of all of their cards, he would get to use the deck of cards to give “knucks” to all of the losers. If you lost, you would get your knuckles rapped based on how many cards remained in your hand.
The 1-point (single) knucks involved the winner hitting the knuckles on your closed fist with the edge of the flat side of the deck. The 2-point (double) knucks involved the winner hitting the knuckles on your closed fist with the sharp edge of the deck. The type of “payment” exacted remained the discretion of the winner. If, for example, you had five remaining cards, he could give you two doubles and one single, or one double and three singles. One or more players invariably left the game with their knuckles bleeding.
While extracting knuckle pain had its appeal, you know the Bronx kids had to up the ante. That came in the form of a game called GAPO. The letters stood for Gorilla Arm Pit Odor. Again, I have absolutely NO idea where that came from.
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