Don't know why it was called skellies, but in Brooklyn in the 1950s, we played the game on the tarred street.
First, we drew a large box with chalk. At each corner of the box and in between each corner we drew a small box and put a number in each, beginning with the number 1. which gave us eight boxes on the fringes.
In the center of the large box, we drew a box the same size as the ones on the fringes and then drew a larger box around it, filling in the space beteen the two boxes with a bunch of Xs (that was the "skellies" area and it looked like a spider web).
Then, we played the counting finger game to see who goes first, second, and so on...can explain that game later if you don't know it.
We used Coke and Pepsi bottle caps for the game; the kind that used to be heavy and came with a cork lining. Their weight made them stable enough to be propelled with the flick of a thumb.
The idea of the game was to shoot the cork into the boxes one at a time. If your cork landed on a line, you had to give over your turn to the next shooter.
When a shooter did all eight, the idea was to get into box number 9 without landing in the skellies area which, when you did, you were out of the game.
It was perfectly fine for one player to knock another player's cap off the line of a box with his shot at the same box. That way, it prolonged how quickly the other player could get his cap into the box, since the cap was now farther away than when it rested on a line and could be easily flipped into the box on the next turn.
When we had some pocket change, which we hardly ever had, we played for money. Usually, however, we just played for bragging rights.
