Good morning, folks.
I figgered y’all couldn’t wait for another New Yawk Street Game Story. So here goes. 
In “no school” times like summer or week ends or even after school in daylight saving time, we played games.  If it wasn’t Red Rover, Fox and Geese, Ring aleevio, Guns, Cowboys and Indians, or Kick the Can; it may have been War( aka Spud, Territories, or whatever 4-letter word one of you thought of)   
To play “War”. You needed only one hi-bounce, pink Spaldeen ball and 2-6 players.

To start, each player selected or was given a country as his identification.  The US was usually left out cause everybody would want it.   So Johnny Ambrosano would be Italy; Kevin Kelly was Ireland.etc. Remember. It was the forties or maybe early fifties. Not many volunteers for Japan or Germany. Just for the devilment of it, I selected Germany. 
Ok so now someone starts by yelling, “ I declare war on Italy”.
throwing the Spaldeen as high as he could, as near to straight up as he could and we all scattered ( not very far? ) cause Johnny Ambrosano ( aka Italy) would try to catch the ball on the fly.  If he caught it, he would immediately throw it as high as he could while yelling”I declare war on Ireland which would get Kevin Kelly animated real quick to try to catch the damn spaldeen. If the ball bounced before he caught it, he would chase it.  When he caught the ball he’d shout. “ Stop”!  Or whatever word we chose.  Everyone would “freeze” where he was.   Kevin (aka) Ireland. Would then try to hit one of the “frozen” players with the spaldeen. If he hit one of us, the one he hit got one point or an S if you’re playing “Spud”.  If he missed he got the point.  Whoever amassed 4 Points first lost the War and the “gang” of  5 winners would mete out some horrible punishment.
Boy, it was easier to play than to describe 70 years later.