did you ever play marbles?

[GL]

i'm watching 'made in america' on the travel channel and they did a story on a company that makes marbles. i was reminded of fifth and sixth grade when i used to play marbles with my friends at recess and after school while waiting for my ride home. did you play marbles when you were a kid? if not, what did you play?

 

[Croynan]

one of my problems is that i lost my marbles at a very young age and have never been able to make up for that ever since then.

eM.

 

[Scrub]

I never understood what one was supposed to do with marbles.

I played with Barbies

 

[G-Lexington]

I did play marbles, but not much. I was more of a Chinese jacks fan. This probably was an early sign of a problem.

Lex

 

[jimm04]

Not a lot to do with marbles....

 

[sixthson]

one of my problems is that i lost my marbles at a very young age and have never been able to make up for that ever since then.

eM.

Take comfort in knowing you are not alone. Peto has lost his, as well.

We used to play marbles all the time with pieries (sp?), steelies and the big ones (whatever they were called). I used to love it when you could hear the marbles smacking just right and you cracked the other guy's marble. Sounds violent, eh?

 

[chatolandia]

I was not good at it

and lost interest

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>We used to play marbles all the time with pieries (sp?), steelies and the big ones (whatever they were called).

Shooters.

Lex

 

[gsdx]

We have a similar programme up here in Canada called How It's Made. One episode featured the making of marbles. They were made by hand in the episode. Very interesting.

We used to play several different games when I was a kid. One involved a large circle drawn in sand (or with chalk on a sidewalk or driveway) and knocking marbles out if it with a 'conker' (huge marble). We got to keep the marbles we knocked out.

Another game involved a small box (such as an inverted shoe box) with little 'archways' of different sizes cut out of the rim. In effect, they made little tunnels into the inverted box. If the other person's marbles bounced off the box, we got to keep them. If they made it into one of the tunnels, they won marbles depending upon the size of the hole.

I remember we used to have names for all the different marbles, such as aggies and puries.

Good times, those.

 

[GL]

Yep, marbles were a craze when I was about 10 GL, and I played it all the time at lunchtime at school. We called the bid ones Bonzo's, and the 'catseyes' were the most sought after. But then all of a sudden the craze was yo-yo's and I moved onto that.

~sigh~

i had a yo-yo in college. now i want one again.

 

[gmoney]

I never understood what one was supposed to do with marbles.

Neither did I.

This thread reminded me of one toy that was very popular in the 70's. We called them clackers. Large marbles on a string (about 14") that you "clacked" together. Of course they created a lot of injuries and were eventually pulled off the market, but they were the thing to have once upon a time.

 

[gingentleman]

Yes, I played marbles with the other kids, and I was good at it. I still have about a quart jar's worth of my once quite large marble collection!

 

[Kyanimal]

Ah! "Steelies", "Puries", "Cat's Eyes", "Shooters" ... I DO know what all of those are!

However, do any of you remember "Fried Marbles"???

Basically, you'd drop some, preferably, "Puries", into red hot (veggie) oil, and then, after a minute, or two, into ice water. Though still remaining whole, they would crack into intricate internal designs!

Keep smilin'!!
Chaz

 

[Lukeee]

I had marbles, I didn't realize they were a game though... I just kept them in little bags and looked at them I was a stupid kid.

I still remember all the silly yet simple things I had like my yoyos and uhmm those horrible splat things. Does anyone remember those? They were little gooey things and you flicked them and they came back to you.

 

[Triple G]

Yup, I played marbles.

One day in class some kid's steelies fell out of his pocket and rolled to the front of the classroom-

Teacher: Who has steel balls?

Johnny: Superman



I love that joke

 

[G-Lexington]

>>>I had marbles, I didn't realize they were a game though... I just kept them in little bags and looked at them I was a stupid kid.

You enjoyed staring at balls in a sack? I'd say that was also an early warning sign.

Lex

 

[lambsandlions]

I played with marbles but never played the game.

At my school we had professional yo-yoers come and show us tricks. The next day everyone had a yo-yo.

We also played pogs. Points for anyone who knows what pogs are.

 

[Elwood]

I do not remember playing marbles all that much, I do remember playing with our hockey cards. We use to have the biggest games of hide and go seek and buck buck and kick the cans. What amazing memories I grew up on a street with tons of kids I remember hide and go seek with at least 15 kids playing unfortunately I do not think you would see that today.

 

[hermanding]

the guys i knew would not allow me to play marbles with them, and i never learned
ding

 

[teadrinker]

I loved playing marbles at primary school - there seemed to be a marble season which came round each year, and lasted for a few weeks. For those weeks the gravel of the playground would be turned into "casinos" where you had a chance to pitch your skill against somebody else's and collect their marbles. I was in fact a totally crap player, but I did have the knack of setting up a casino which looked deceptively easy, but was harder than it looked, so I ended up winning quite a lot.

We called the smaller ones "marbles" (inventive, huh?), the largest ones "tom bowlers", and the medium ones "semi toms".

I'd forgotten all about it until I saw this thread!

-T.