Monday, July 8, 2013

Marbles


Marbles


Actually I never can remember playing marbles although I did collect them for a short while. I think marbles was basically a boy's game.
Marbles were small round balls about 1” to 2 “ in diameter that had started off in ancient times as little clay or mud balls that were used to be played in all kinds of invented games. They even found some in the pyramid tombs in Egypt.
 By the time I collected them they were usually made of pretty colored glass or even ceramics. Mike says the most valuable ones were made of steel and were ball bearings and were much to be desired when you were playing a game. I guess they were that way because they were in short supply after the war.

The games seem to be played in many different ways. One way a game is played where the kids gather around a circle that is drawn on the earth and a marble is placed in the middle and then turns are taken to knock it out. The other way Mike says he played , was along the gutters of the road usually on the way home from school. You would again go in turns trying to knock the other players marble and I guess if you did so you would win it.
Onesis” were 1inch marbles and so I guess “twosis” were 2inch marbles. I am sure a lot of the fun was in collecting , exchanging and trading marbles as well as playing the game for both boys and girls
I think the girls liked them as they were really pretty especially the big glass ones with the swirling patterns inside which makes me wonder” whatever did happened to my marbles”.
The phrase,” I think I've lost my marbles”. comes to mind.

I did find one interesting marbles game you could play on a computer if you want to try it.

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